Christopher Brocklebank-fowler
Liberal Tory MP known as Edward Heath’s ‘cupbearer’ who crossed the floor to join the new SDP
CHRISTOPHER BROCK LE BANK FOWLER, who has died aged 86, was the only Conservative to defect to the SDP when the new centre-left party was formed in 1981 – and the first MP physically to cross the floor of the House since 1906.
Prior to the launch of the SDP that March, Tory whips feared a hard core of “wets” would jump ship and create a bandwagon effect, and kept a close eye on several suspects. But Brock le bank f owl er,MP for NorthWest Norfolk, was not among them, despite having been a fervent supporter of Edward Heath – and having competed as a “Tory wet” in Hunstanton’s charity Christmas swim.
He had just told his constituency association – who had recently given him a vote of confidence – with tears in his eyes that he would not stand again as a Conservative because of “profound disagreement” with Margaret Thatcher’s policies. But his defection was a total surprise.
On March 16, as other rural Tories prepared to rebel against the 20 pence a gallon increase in petrol duty in Sir Geoffrey Howe’s Budget, Brocklebank-fowler posted a letter to Mrs Thatcher resigning the whip.
He rose from his place, delivered a speech saying he could not support her government’s economic policies, and at its close crossed the floor. Dr David Owen shook his hand and he was welcomed by the 11 other Labour MPS who had already broken ranks, ahead of the SDP’S launch 10 days later.
Brocklebank-fowler had considered joining the Liberals and met their leader David Steel, but had reservations about their defence policy. By joining the SDP he hoped to provide a different perspective from its ex-labour members.
He was the first MP to cross the floor while the House was sitting since the Conservative Austin Taylor defected to the Liberals 75 years before. The next – in 1995 – would be Alan Howarth, from the Conservatives to Labour. Brocklebank-fowler praised Howarth’s move as “extraordinarily brave”, adding: “He will need his friends, and he may find he has fewer than he thought.”
The founders of the SDP hoped that Brocklebank-fowler’s action would encourage other disillusioned Conservatives to follow suit. He himself said the party would welcome “Tory MPS who put principle above personal ambition”, but not “carpetbaggers or career-minded political refugees”.
A number considered it, but in the event none made the move, and Brocklebank-fowler remained the only ex-tory on the SDP benches until he lost his seat at the 1983 election.
He paid a heavy financial price, saying: “Most of my consultancies disappeared within three weeks.” Brocklebank-fowler had told businessmen in his constituency he more than doubled his £10,750 MP’S salary working three hours a week advising companies on overseas trade. His consultancy for the Datsun Dealers’ Association led him to brand some British cars “a load of junk”.
Lanky, genial and popular with his colleagues until he jumped ship, Brocklebank-fowler had always been a very liberal Tory, especially on Africa and race relations. His ardent support for Heath earned him the nickname of “the cupbearer”, after an episode when the prime minister’s throat dried up in mid-speech and
Brocklebank-fowler rushed out for a cup of water. Later, he was known as “Dogger Bank-trawler”.
Christopher Brock le bank fowler was born on January 13 1934, the second son of Sidney Brocklebank-fowler. Leaving The Perse School, Cambridge, at 16, he became a pupil on farms across East Anglia, taking a Diploma of Agriculture in Oxford.
After National Service as a sub-lieutenant on submarines from 1952 to 1954, he worked as a farm manager in Kenya. He returned in 1957 to take up a management traineeship with Unilever. From 1959 to 1979 he was an advertising and marketing consultant, then he chaired the Overseas Trade & Development Agency.
Brocklebank-fowler fought West Ham North in 1964. The next year, he co-authored a Bow Group pamphlet criticising both main parties’ “obsession” with arbitrary numerical controls on immigration. At the Conservative conference he proposed a motion calling for better integration of immigrants. The opposing speaker declared: “To allow in immigrants is madness; to allow in coloured immigrants is double madness.”
As chairman of the Bow Group in 1968-69, he criticised Heath’s Shadow Cabinet for opposing Labour’s Race Relations Bill.
For the 1970 election, Brocklebank-fowler was selected for ultra-marginal King’s Lynn; he defeated Labour’s Derek Page, who had narrowly taken the seat in 1964 and 1966, by 33 votes.
He began at Westminster by signing a motion opposing any resumption of arms sales to South Africa, then threatened with five other Conservative MPS to resign from the council of the University of East Anglia unless it severed its financial links with the country.
In 1971 Brocklebank-fowler bought two redundant Sandringham estate workers’ cottages from the Queen, converting them into a family home. Reflecting a strong constituency interest, he chaired the Conservative backbench committee on horticulture.
In March 1973 his parked car was wrecked in an IRA bombing in Whitehall during the visit of the Irish prime minister Liam Cosgrave.
When Heath called the snap February 1974 election on redrawn boundaries, Brocklebank-fowler fought North West Norfolk, hanging on by 803 votes. That October he increased his majority to 1,343, again against the national swing. A Labour inquest said failure to win that seat and 10 other super-marginals was the “big mystery of the election”.
In 1975 he took up the issue of thousands of pounds worth of art treasures rotting away in a loft at Kings Lynn Museum through a lack of funds to store or exhibit them properly.
His continuing interest in Africa led him early in 1976 to call for Britain and the UN to press newly independent Angola for the withdrawal of Cuban troops who were destabilising neighbouring countries. He followed up by demanding assurances that white Rhodesians would not be victimised under majority rule.
Re-elected in 1979 by 7,928 votes as Mrs Thatcher led the Conservatives to power, Brocklebank-fowler became chairman of the Overseas Development Select committee. The following year he welcomed Robert Mugabe’s election to lead Zimbabwe, and the “moderate nature of his policies”. On the SDP benches he became the party’s spokesman on agriculture and overseas development. An ally of Dr Owen, he supported his efforts to keep the party separate from the Liberals.
In 1983 Brocklebank-fowler lost his seat to the Conservative Henry Bellingham by 3,147 votes as the Sdp/liberal Alliance failed to break through. That autumn he told his party’s conference they should ignore the fact that they had won so few seats and rejoice in the number of votes gained.
He contested North West Norfolk again in 1987, losing by 10,000 votes. When the SDP split over whether to merge with the Liberals, he broke with Dr Owen and became a Liberal Democrat, fighting Norfolk South in 1992. But in 1996 he moved again – to the Labour Party, becoming one of the only members of that party who was publicly prohunting; he was also keen on shooting and fishing.
As chairman of SOS Children’s Villages he promoted plans for a community for orphaned and abandoned children in Scotland; when the local council blocked the plan in 1980 he looked at Botswana instead.
At various times Brocklebank-fowler was vicepresident of the Institute of Management Consultancy; chairman of the UN parliamentary group; vice-chairman of the Centre for World Development Education and the information panel of the National Committee for Commonwealth Immigrants; a committee member of the Africa Bureau; and a governor of the Institute of Development Studies.
Brocklebank-fowler enjoyed a late-life reinvention as a river keeper on the River Forss in Caithness, taking a temporary job at the age of 76 to tend the derelict salmon beats; he did this for six years, taking the annual catch and return from 30 fish to more than 500.
Christopher Brock le bank fowler enjoyed the company of women and was thrice married: to Joan Nowland in 1957, Mary Berry in 1975 and Dorothea Rycroft in 1996; all three marriages were dissolved. He is survived by two sons from his first marriage.
Christopher Brock le bank fowler, born January 131934, died May 29 2020