Michael Spicer


William Michael Hardy Spicer, Baron Spicer, was a British politician and life peer who was a Conservative member of the House of Lords from 2010. He served as Member of Parliament for West Worcestershire from 1974 to 2010 and was a minister from 1984 to 1990. He later served as chairman of the 1922 Committee from 2001 to 2010.

Early life

He was born in Bath, Somerset, to Lt. Col. L. Hardy Spicer and Muriel, daughter of Wallis G. Carter of Bath. Spicer was educated in Vienna, at Gaunts House Preparatory School and Wellington College, and received a degree in economics from Emmanuel College, Cambridge. After graduation, he worked as a financial journalist for The Statist, the Daily Mail and The Sunday Times. He was Director of Conservative Systems Research Centre from 1968 to 1970, and Managing Director of Economic Models Ltd from 1970 to 1980.

Parliamentary career

Spicer joined the Conservative Party, and at the 1966 general election he challenged Manny Shinwell in the safe Labour Easington constituency, as the youngest Parliamentary candidate in the country against the eldest. He stood in Easington again at the 1970 general election before being elected at the February 1974 general election for South Worcestershire. He represented South Worcestershire until 1997, when boundary changes abolished the constituency; he then moved to the West Worcestershire seat, which he represented until his retirement from the Commons.
After the 1979 general election, which swept the Conservatives to power, he became a Parliamentary Private Secretary at the Department of Trade. He was later made a Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. He became a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Transport in 1984, serving until 1987, with specific responsibility for aviation. In 1987, he moved to the Department of Energy, again as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary, this time with responsibility for electricity and coal. In January 1990, he was promoted to become a Minister of State at the Department of the Environment; however, after the ousting of Margaret Thatcher in November 1990, he left the government payroll over his opposition to the UK's participation in the European Exchange Rate Mechanism.
On leaving the government, he became Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee in the House of Commons. In 1993, he founded the eurosceptic European Research Group within the Conservative Party.
In the 1996 New Year Honours he received a knighthood, with the honour conferred by The Queen on 13 February 1996. After the 1997 general election he became a member of the Treasury Select Committee.

As an MP after 1997

His majority declined in 1997, in keeping with the general trend across the country, but he kept his seat which had become West Worcestershire after boundary changes that year. His majority almost doubled four years later at the 2001 general election. However, unlike most Conservative MPs, he failed to increase his majority in 2005; instead it was more than halved, and he held one of the Conservatives' most marginal seats against the Liberal Democrats, as part of their ‘decapitation’ strategy.
After the 2001 general election Spicer was elected Chairman of the 1922 Committee, a position he held until standing down in 2010.
As chairman of the 1922 Committee he had the distinction of presiding over more :Category:Conservative Party leadership elections|leadership elections than any of his predecessors: Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Howard and David Cameron were all elected during his tenure.
In the Commons, he became known for asking short, usually one-sentence questions to government ministers and at Prime Minister's Questions, for example once asking Gordon Brown simply "Will the Prime Minister confirm that he will soldier on to the bitter end?"
On 26 March 2006, Spicer announced that he would not contest the Worcestershire West seat at the 2010 election, and would retire as an MP.
He was created a life peer on 8 July 2010 as Baron Spicer, of Cropthorne in the County of Worcestershire.
He was sworn of the Privy Council in 2013; as a peer he therefore acquired the post-nominal letters "PC" for life.

Personal life and death

Spicer died from complications of Parkinson's disease and leukaemia on 29 May 2019.

Author

He was an author and had a number of books published, including The Spicer Diaries.

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