Norman Tebbit, former Tory cabinet minister who survived IRA bomb, dies aged 94

Former British politician Norman Tebbit has died “peacefully at home” at the age of 94, his son William has said.

Lord Tebbit was part of then prime minister Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet during the 1980s, serving as employment secretary and party chairman.

He was the most high-profile victim of the IRA’s 1984 bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton and was trapped in the rubble for hours with his wife, who was left paralysed for life.

Lord Tebbit was known for his tough reaction to the riots in the early years of Thatcher’s government.

He told one party conference that his father did not riot when he did not have a job, saying: “He got on his bike and looked for work.”

Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 (Photo: Georges De Keerle/Getty)

Norman Tebbit in 2010 (Photo: David Levenson/Getty)

To political opponents, the comment encapsulated what they saw as the callous indifference of the Conservatives to the rising joblessness of the 1980s.

Once memorably described by Labour’s Michael Foot as a “semi-house-trained polecat”, Lord Tebbit revelled in his reputation as a political bruiser as the government pushed ahead with free-market reforms.

As employment secretary, he piloted key legislation which reduced the power of the trade union “closed shop” and diluted the unions’ immunity from civil damages.

Despite a reputation for thuggishness that earned him the nickname the “Chingford skinhead” – a reference to his Essex constituency – he was privately a kindly man who was friendly to those he sparred with in public.

Following the 1984 Brighton bombing, he was left with a hole in his side which needed regular treatment for years.

It took four hours for fire crews to extricate him and his wife from the site of the attack, which had been intended to target Thatcher.

After masterminding Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Lord Tebbit stepped down from the government so that he could spend more time caring for his wife.

Tributes paid to Conservative ‘family man’

Former prime minister Rishi Sunak was among those who paid tribute to the Tory grandee upon hearing of his death.

Sunak said Lord Tebbit was a “titan of Conservative politics” whose “resilience, conviction and service left a lasting mark on our party and our country”.

Former prime minister Lord Cameron said Lord Tebbit would write to him when he was in No 10, with “some letters more ‘constructive’ than others”, but “they certainly always grabbed my attention and I had no doubt that they came with only our country’s best interests in mind”.

He said that “for all his caustic tongue and sharp wit, he was also privately a kind and thoughtful man”, and “we say it often now, but they don’t make ’em like Norman anymore”.

Norman Tebbit talks to his wife Margaret at the 1983 Conservative Party conference (Photo: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Getty)

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.”

She said the “stoicism and courage” he showed following the Brighton bombing and the care he showed for his wife was a reminder that he was “first and foremost a family man who always held true to his principles”.

Badenoch added: “He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised.”

Thatcher’s kindred spirit

Born on 29 March, 1931, in Ponders End, Middlesex, Norman Tebbit was the son of Leonard Tebbit, a pawnbroker, and his wife Edith.

After attending grammar school he got a job as a journalist at the Financial Times, where the requirement to join a trade union inspired a desire to break the power of the closed shop.

Following national service with the RAF he joined the airline BOAC as a long-haul pilot and navigator, where he became a highly effective official for the pilots’ union, Balpa.

He was first elected as a Conservative MP in 1970 and joined the right-wing Monday club.

When Thatcher became party leader in 1975, he strongly backed her agenda of free-market reforms, making headlines when he accused then Labour minister Michael Foot of “pure undiluted fascism” in an exchange about closed shops.

Following Thatcher’s 1979 election victory, he became a junior trade minister and was then promoted to cabinet as employment secretary two years later.

Inner city riots in Handsworth and Brixton in 1981 amid rising unemployment prompted him to remark: “I grew up in the 30s 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.”

Such comments led to nicknames like “Onyerbike” and “Nasty Norm”, with a satirical puppet show Spitting Image memorably portraying him as a leather-jacketed thug brutally beating up political opponents and fellow ministers alike.

He had his share of disagreements with Thatcher.

“I was never frightened of her,” he remembered. “The most she could do was sack me. I didn’t see any point in not standing up to her.”

Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit at the annual Conservative Party conference in 1985 (Photo: David Levenson/Getty)

Norman Tebbit delivering a speech at the 1987 party conference (Photo: Evening Standard/Getty)

In the run-up to the 1987 general election, Thatcher was reportedly not amused when he asked her to take more of a back seat in campaigning after polling showed her leadership – the so-called “that bloody woman” factor – was warding off voters.

Some of Thatcher’s allies believed he was more interested in advancing his leadership ambitions, but despite internal squabbling the Conservatives again won a three-figure majority.

Following his resignation to care for his wife, Thatcher said she “bitterly regretted” losing a kindred spirit from the Cabinet.

He later acknowledged his regret at losing an opportunity to become her successor.

He remained politically active and was made a life peer in 1992.

In the House of Lords, he and Thatcher opposed the Maastricht Treaty, signed by John Major, which created the European Union.

Lord Tebbit remained outspoken on a range of issues, warning that legislation to allow same-sex marriage passed under Cameron was alienating Tory voters.

He was the author of a number of books including The Game Cookbook – featuring his favourite recipes for partridge, grouse, pheasant and the like – which proved to be a surprise hit in 2009.

In 2020, his wife, Lady Tebbit, died aged 86. He never forgave the IRA terrorist responsible for her injuries.

Lord Tebbit is survived by two sons and a daughter.

Tebbit typified a combative age of 1980s politics

By Kitty Donaldson, Chief Political Commentator

It was a night which defined the rest of Norman Tebbit’s life. In 1984 he was one of the victims of the IRA’s bombing of Brighton’s Grand Hotel – which killed five people in the terrorist group’s attempt to assassinate then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her Cabinet.

Norman and Margaret Tebbit were asleep on the second floor. The blast sent their bed crashing two storeys down into the Grand Hotel’s foyer during the Tory party’s annual conference. While he sustained broken bones, his wife was paralysed. He later left his cabinet post to care for her.

In conversations I had with him in his later years, Tebbit could never forgive the IRA for what they had done. He was a man of strong convictions and unshakeable beliefs in Conservative principles.

Tebbit, one of Thatcher’s closest allies and a former Tory party chairman, pilot, journalist and scourge of the left, died peacefully aged 94. He outlived his wife by five years.

The Tory grandee was born in 1931 to a working-class family in Middlesex, before pursuing a career as an airline pilot.

Dubbed “The Chingford Skinhead” by critics referencing his perceived aggressive and uncompromising political style, he typified a combative age of 1980s politics when ideological differences across Britain were at their most stark. Tebbit even accused far-left Labour leader Michael Foot of “pure undiluted fascism” because, he argued, Foot would deny freedoms to working people.

The outpouring of grief from modern Conservatives has already begun – a real fondness for a man who mentored the next generation. But the tributes also hold a nostalgia for an age where ideological battles seemed far simpler.