Michael Jopling


Thomas Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling, PC, DL 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 is the son of Mark Bellerby Jopling, of Masham, North Yorkshire, a partner in Imeson and Jopling, surveyors, auctioneers and estate agents. He 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".
After over 32 years as a member of the House Commons, he stood down in the 1997 general election and was succeeded by Tim Collins. He was absent during the last few weeks of his Commons career as he was severely injured in a car accident in February 1997. He returned to the House on the last day the house sat before it dissolved for the election, and was greeted at Prime Minister’s Questions by John Major at his last question session on 20 March.
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 eldest son Nicholas is also active in the Conservative Party. He contested the Sedgefield constituency in the 1992 general election, but lost to the future Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, Tony Blair.
His younger son, Jay Jopling, is a British contemporary art dealer and gallerist.
His grandson, Caspar Jopling is married to singer Ellie Goulding.