FORMER Tory cabinet minister Norman Tebbit has died aged 94.
The Conservative politician was one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political allies and played a key role in Tory politics for a generation.
His death was confirmed by his son William who said his father died “peacefully at home”.
During his long political career he served as employment secretary, trade and industry secretary, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and chair of the Conservative party.
He suffered grave injuries in the 1984 Brighton bombing, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down.
In a statement, Tebbit’s son William said: “At 11.15pm on 7th July 2025 Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94.
“His family ask that their privacy is respected at this time and a further statement regarding funeral arrangements will be made in due course.”
Tebbit represented the constituencies of Epping and Chingford as an MP for 22 years before receiving a life peerage as Lord Tebbit of Chingford.
He retired from the House of Lords in 2022.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: “Norman Tebbit was an icon in British politics and his death will cause sadness across the political spectrum.
“He was one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism and his unstinting service in the pursuit of improving our country should be held up as an inspiration to all Conservatives.”
Badenoch added: “He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised.”
Tebbit was a prominent figure in the Thatcher era with a reputation as a political bruiser, as he played a key role in the economic and social reforms that characterised the 1980s.
Following inner city riots in Handsworth, Birmingham, and Brixton, south London, in 1981, he made comments which led to him being dubbed “Onyerbike” by critics who believed he was a symbol of Conservative indifference to rising unemployment.
Rejecting suggestions that street violence was a natural response to rising unemployment, he retorted: “I grew up in the Thirties with an unemployed father. He didn’t riot. He got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.”
He was memorably described by Labour’s Michael Foot as a “semi-house-trained polecat” and was also nicknamed the “Chingford skinhead” in reference to his Essex constituency.
