Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Michael Cocks Party Conservative Party Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher Role Politician | Succeeded by John MacGregor Name Michael Baron Preceded by Peter Walker Succeeded by John Wakeham Children Jay Jopling | |
Education Cheltenham College, Newcastle University, Durham University Grandchildren Angelica Jopling, Jessie Phoenix Jopling Similar People Jay Jopling, Margaret Thatcher, Angelica Jopling, Sam Taylor‑Johnson, Romy Hero Johnson | ||
Thomas Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling, PC (born 10 December 1930) is a politician in the United Kingdom, and sits in the House of Lords as a member of the Conservative Party.
Life and career
Jopling was educated at Cheltenham College and Durham University. He was a farmer and company director, and served on the national council of the National Farmers Union. He was a councillor on Thirsk Rural District Council.
Having previously stood unsuccessfully in Wakefield in 1959, Jopling was elected Conservative MP for Westmorland, now in Cumbria, in 1964 and became Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1979 to 1983. In 1983, he was elected for Westmorland and Lonsdale after boundary changes, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1983 to 1987.
In his Diaries, the military historian and Tory member of Parliament Alan Clark famously quoted what he claimed was Jopling's "snobby but cutting" dismissal of the ambitious Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine: "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture".
Jopling was made a life peer as Baron Jopling, of Ainderby Quernhow in the County of North Yorkshire on 5 June 1997. He is a member of the Privy Council and the America All Party Parliamentary Group.
His younger son, Jay Jopling, is a British contemporary art dealer and gallerist.