Caroline Roberts
Parliamentary assistant to Tory MPS who was held in great affection across the political spectrum
CAROLINE ROBERTS, who has died aged 66, was a popular figure at Westminster as parliamentary assistant to a series of Conservative MPS, including Nigel Lawson. She was later an accomplished lobbyist for the Brewers’ Society and the Direct Marketing Association, and an influential Tory, chairing her constituency and the London party.
She was highly rated across the political spectrum for her rare combination of serious intellect, political understanding, immense sociability and – above all – unconditional generosity. Despite her own political convictions, she had good friends in all parties, and was a welcome arrival at any of the lobbies and bars of the Palace of Westminster, or at any party’s conference.
Her base at the Commons was Room 401 in Norman Shaw South building (previously New Scotland Yard, and named after its architect), which she shared with five other MPS’ secretaries. Three became lifelong friends, and one – Helyn Dudley – still works at Westminster, for her 11th MP.
Caroline Elizabeth Roberts was born on November 30 1953, one of three children of Charles Roberts and the former Margaret Jones. Her father was in the Colonial Office, ending his career as Britain’s High Commissioner to Barbados.
After Walthamstow Hall School, Sevenoaks, she read Politics and Modern History at Manchester
University. Graduating in 1977, she took a job in the management services division of Trafford council, before moving to London in 1980.
She worked for Ray Whitney, MP for Wycombe, then Lawson, and briefly his constituency successor in Blaby, Andrew Robathan. Lawson, even when Chancellor, made a point of going through his party conference hotel bill with her to make sure he had not been wrongly charged.
On one occasion, she was trying hard to get through on the telephone to a department’s Permanent Secretary while, at the same time, trying to book Smartie Artie the clown for a children’s party. Both her targets were on the phone but she kept trying, alternating between them, until, at last, one answered. “Is that Smartie Artie” she inquired. Inevitably, it was not.
Having sat through innumerable speeches, she kept a notebook in which she recorded amusing infelicities.
Things had a tendency to happen around her. A Christmas dinner organised with fellow occupants of Room 401 with John Prescott as guest of honour ended in disarray when Prescott had to leave to be briefed on the Lockerbie disaster. When she dined at the home of Nigel Wade, Foreign Editor of The Daily Telegraph, Wade’s Persian cat burst into flames between courses after getting too close to a candle; the cat was puzzled, but not seriously hurt.
Caroline Roberts left the Commons in 1989 to join the Brewers’ Society as its director of parliamentary affairs, drumming up support among MPS for (or against) legislative and tax changes affecting brewers and the pub trade.
With the industry undergoing huge changes as a result of Lord Young’s controversial Beer Orders, she became almost as familiar a figure at Westminster as before. However, her remit spread much wider: she even found herself advising the editor of The Collected Letters of Dylan Thomas on the Welsh poet’s drinking habits.
In 2001 she moved to the Direct Marketing Association as director of public and legal affairs. Here she built bridges between the direct mail industry and Whitehall, pushing its fight against tougher regulation, both from Westminster and from Brussels, working closely with the Advertising Association and, when appropriate, with government. Retiring in 2014, she kept on some consultancy work.
In Battersea she chaired the Tory constituency association from 1993 to 1996. At the next year’s general election she fought her only parliamentary seat, taking on Labour’s Alun Michael at Cardiff South & Penarth.
She chaired London South Area Conservatives from 2002 to 2005, and the London region, 2008-11. She also chaired the Party Board’s Disciplinary Sub-committee, guiding it through some cases of alleged bullying.
She worked as administrator of the Constitution Reform Group, led by figures including the Marquess of Salisbury, Lord Lisvane and David Burnside, from its formation in 2015 until shortly before her death.
She was an independent custody visitor for the Metropolitan Police, chaired the Wandsworth Visitors Panel, and served as an Appropriate Adult, assisting at police interviews with under-age or vulnerable-adult detainees. She was also deputy chairman of governors at Garratt Park school in Wandsworth.
She was appointed MBE in 2015. Caroline Roberts, who faced cancer with inspiring calm and courage, never married. She had a wide circle of friends, and was a devoted godmother.