Geoffrey Dodsworth
Merchant banker and MP who spoke up for Edward Heath
GEOFFREY DODSWORTH, who has died aged 89, was the Conservative MP for South West Hertfordshire from 1974 to 1979; he was a strong supporter of Edward Heath and a campaigner for freedom of information.
Dodsworth, a banker who learnt his politics on York City Council, entered the Commons with a majority of 8,098 at the snap election of February 1974. He found fellow Tory backbenchers traumatised by their defeat and Heath under fire for mis-timing the election and for his policies.
He soon became Michael Heseltine’s link with the shipping industry, on whose financing he was an expert, as the fightback began against Tony Benn’s industrial policies. With several dozen other Tories, he defied the whips to vote against Denis Healey’s Budget.
A further election defeat that October after a campaign in which Heath proposed a “government of national unity” brought pressure for a change. Dodsworth spoke up for Heath, who he said had presented “unpalatable truths” to the nation. If Heath was proved wrong, said Dodsworth, there was plenty of time for selecting a new leader before the next election.
His appeal was ignored, and in February 1975 Margaret Thatcher was installed as party leader. Dodsworth kept a low profile, but nearly scored a coup when he urged the Speaker to reject Labour’s 1976 Finance Bill because it went beyond fiscal measures by allowing tax inspectors to raid businesses.
In 1978, after a series of high-profile official secrets cases had backfired on the government, Dodsworth tabled a Bill to give the public greater access to official information. So too did the Liberal Clement Freud, who came first in the ballot for Private Members’ Bills to Dodsworth’s 17th. Freud got the parliamentary time and the credit – though his Bill was lost when the Labour government fell.
At the May 1979 election that brought Mrs Thatcher to power, Dodsworth was re-elected with a 16,329 majority. But that October, on doctors’ advice, he resigned. He probably left Parliament at an opportune time: he was far enough to the Left of the Conservative Party that his chances of preferment under Mrs Thatcher cannot have been great.
Geoffrey Hugh Dodsworth was born in York on June 7 1928, the son of Walter Dodsworth and his wife Doris (née Baxter). He was educated at St Peter’s School, York, and, after National Service, trained as a chartered accountant, becoming a partner with Barron & Barron.
He was elected to York city council in 1959, becoming deputy leader of its Conservative group. That same year he fought the mining seat of Don Valley.
For the 1964 election he was selected to defend Hartlepool when Commander JS Kerans, the famed captain of Amethyst, decided after one term that Parliament was not for him. Kerans’s majority was only 183 and, although Dodsworth worked the seat hard, Labour’s Ted Leadbitter took it by 2,867 votes.
Dodsworth was then selected for Doncaster, but withdrew before the 1966 election to concentrate on setting up export/import companies. In 1972 he became a director of William Brandt’s merchant bank, and from 1976 to 1980 a director of its parent, Grindlays (now ANZ).
His health later recovered sufficiently for him to return to banking as president and chief executive of the Bermuda-based Oceanic Finance. Since 1988 he had chaired his own company. One of his biggest deals was negotiating the sale of a cable and telephone franchise to Cable & Wireless.
Geoffrey Dodsworth married, first, Isobel Neale in 1949. She died in 1967 and in 1971 he married, secondly, Elizabeth Beeston, who survives him with their son and daughter, and a daughter from his first marriage.
Geoffrey Dodsworth, born June 7 1928, died March 29 2018