Lord Tebbit announces retirement after half a century in Parliament

Lord Tebbit, the former MP for Chingford who served in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet for six years, has announced he is retiring from the House of Lords after more than 50 years in Parliament.

The 90-year-old peer said he had come to the decision as his health was deteriorating and the “anti-motorist policies of the London authorities” made commuting to Parliament more difficult.

Tebbit joined Parliament at the 1970 general election, and served as employment secretary, trade and industry secretary, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and chairman of the Conservative Party. He was injured in the 1984 IRA terrorist bombing of the Brighton Grand Hotel during Conservative Party Conference, an attack which left his late wife permanently disabled.

Writing in The Telegraph, Tebbit said the continued pain from his injury had contributed to decision to retire; he had sat in the Lords since 1992.