Peter Tapsell (British politician)

Early life and education

Tapsell was born in Hove. He was educated at Tonbridge School, served in the Royal Sussex Regiment from 1948 to 1950, and continued his education at Merton College, Oxford, gaining a BA in Modern History in 1954, during which time he was also elected Librarian of the Oxford Union (a senior office). Tapsell was a member of the Oxford University Labour Club during his time at Oxford, alongside Gerald Kaufman.

Political career

Tapsell worked as a personal assistant to Sir Anthony Eden during the 1955 general election. He contested the Wednesbury by-election in 1957, losing to the Labour Party candidate John Stonehouse. Tapsell was chairman of the Coningsby Club from 1957 until 1958.

He first entered Parliament in the 1959 general election, representing Nottingham West, and was the Conservatives' longest-serving MP albeit with a gap in service (1964–66). From 2005 onwards, he was the only MP from any party who was first elected in the 1950s, but the two-year gap in his parliamentary service prevented him from becoming Father of the House until Alan Williams retired in 2010. He is one of a few MPs in parliamentary history to have served over fifty years in the House of Commons.

After losing his seat at the 1964 general election, he was selected for Horncastle, representing the constituency from 1966 to 1983. In 1983, boundary changes moved Tapsell to East Lindsey, which he represented until 1997 when further boundary changes moved him to Louth and Horncastle. Tapsell was knighted in 1985.

Tapsell has long been a supporter of Keynesian economics, and opposed the monetarist policies of Margaret Thatcher's governments. In 1981 he voted against Sir Geoffrey Howe's Budget - becoming, as Peter Oborne noted, "the first Conservative since Harold Macmillan in the 1930s to vote against a Budget, a brave move which turned him into an internal political exile."

Tapsell is known for his forthright views and is sometimes controversial. In May 2001, he made headlines during the UK general election campaign when comparing German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's vision of Europe to Adolf Hitler's: "We may not have studied Hitler's Mein Kampf in time but, by heaven, there is no excuse for us not studying the Schröder plan now".

On Wednesday 9 November 2005, he was the only Conservative MP, and one of only two non-Labour MPs, to vote in favour of a proposal to allow police to detain terror suspects for up to 90 days without charge.

In July 2006, he said that Israeli action in Lebanon was "gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw". He is opposed to the war in Afghanistan.

Guardian sketch writer Simon Hoggart frequently lavished praise on Sir Peter, describing him as "the grandest of grandees" (July 2008) that when in the Chamber, Tapsell rises "to speak, or rather to intone superbly" (January 2008) and that "like the Old Faithful geyser in Yellowstone Park, [he] erupts at irregular but predictable intervals" (July 2009).

In June 2011, it was announced Tapsell would be appointed as a Privy Counsellor in the 2011 Birthday Honours. On 13 July 2011, he was sworn of Council.

In March 2012, Tapsell was reported as being one of the Conservative MPs to have spoken critically of Party Co-Chairman Sayeeda Warsi at a meeting of the 1922 Committee, following Warsi's handling of Roger Helmer MEP's defection to UKIP.

On Friday 21 March 2014, he announced his intention to step down from Parliament at the 2015 general election, and also gave an interview where he was highly critical of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in whose government he briefly served in the 1980s.

Personal life

Tapsell married the Hon Cecilia Hawke, third daughter of the 9th Baron Hawke in 1963, with whom he had a son, James (b. 1966), who committed suicide in 1985. They divorced in 1971, and Cecilia later married Tapsell's fellow Conservative politician Sir Nicholas Scott in 1979. Tapsell subsequently married Gabrielle Mahieu in 1974.