Peter Temple-Morris, Baron Temple-Morris (12 February 1938 – 1 May 2018) was a British politician. He was elected as the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Member of Parliament (MP) for

Leominster Leominster ( ) is a market town in Herefordshire, England, at the confluence of the River Lugg and its tributary the River Kenwater. The town is north of Hereford and south of Ludlow in Shropshire. With a population of 11,700, Leominster is t ...

in 1974; he stood down in 2001 after changing parties. He sat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...

as a

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

peer. He died on 1 May 2018 aged 80.

Early life

Born in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

, Temple-Morris attended Llandaff Cathedral School and Hillstone School (Malvern College's preparatory school) in Malvern, then

Malvern College Malvern College is an Independent school (United Kingdom), independent coeducational day and boarding school in Malvern, Worcestershire, Malvern, Worcestershire, England. It is a public school (United Kingdom), public school in the British sen ...

. He went to

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The college is located in the historic city-centre of Camb ...

, gaining a BA in Law in 1958. He became a barrister, like his father, from 1962 at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

, practising until 1989. His family home was in Cardiff, as his father Sir Owen Temple-Morris was MP for Cardiff East.

Parliamentary career

Temple-Morris was selected as the Conservative candidate for Newport (Monmouthshire) in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch ...

and

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

and Norwood in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

. In

February 1974 The following events occurred in February 1974: February 1, 1974 (Friday) *Joelma fire, A fire killed 177 people and injured 293 others in the 23-story Joelma Building at São Paulo in Brazil. Another 11 later died of their injuries. The bl ...

, he was elected for

, having been selected for the seat in March 1973. That same year, he was appointed vice-chairman,

Commonwealth Parliamentary Association The Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), previously known as the Empire Parliamentary Association, is an organisation which works to support good governance, democracy and human rights. In 1989 the patron of the CPA was the Head of ...

(UK Branch). In 1979, he was appointed

Parliamentary Private Secretary A Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) is a Member of Parliament (MP) in the United Kingdom who acts as an unpaid assistant to a minister or shadow minister. They are selected from backbench MPs as the 'eyes and ears' of the minister in the H ...

to the Minister of Transport,

Norman Fowler Peter Norman Fowler, Baron Fowler, (born 2 February 1938) is a British politician who served as a member of both Margaret Thatcher and John Major's ministries during the 1980s and 1990s. He held the office of Lord Speaker from 1 September 2016 ...

, Executive Member,

Inter-Parliamentary Union The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; french: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an inter-parliamentary institution, international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and coop ...

(British Group) and Founding Co-Chairman, British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body. He was a member of the Select Committees on Agriculture (1982–83) and on Foreign Affairs (1987–90). Temple-Morris was a strong supporter of

Michael Heseltine Michael Ray Dibdin Heseltine, Baron Heseltine, (; born 21 March 1933) is a British politician and businessman. Having begun his career as a property developer, he became one of the founders of the publishing house Haymarket. Heseltine served a ...

Crossing the floor

Temple-Morris resigned after he was suspended from the Conservative Party in 1997 because Tory officials said he had "repeatedly and publicly questioned his continued commitment to the Conservative Party." Speaking after his resignation, the MP told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I'm not surprised in all the circumstances and not a little bit relieved in view of the unhappy state of politics of the Conservative Party for some years now." The BBC reported that Conservative leader

William Hague William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

's action would be seen as an attempt to deflect attention from disappointing election results in Winchester and Beckenham. As for Temple-Morris, his disaffection toward his old party grew due to their hard-line stance on the

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

. From 1997 to 1998, Temple-Morris sat on the government

benches, but did not take the whip, instead sitting as a one-man 'Independent One-Nation Conservative' group. However, on Saturday 20 June 1998 he joined the Labour Party but stood down as an MP at the 2001 general election. He is the only person ever to serve as a Labour MP representing Herefordshire, though he was never elected as a member of that party.

House of Lords

Temple-Morris was made a

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. In modern times, life peerages, always created at the rank of baron, are created under the Life Peerages ...

on 22 June 2001 as Baron Temple-Morris, of

Llandaff Llandaff (; cy, Llandaf ; from 'church' and '' Taf'') is a district, community and coterminous electoral ward in the north of Cardiff, capital of Wales. It was incorporated into the city in 1922. It is the seat of the Bishop of Llandaff, whose ...

in the County of South Glamorgan and of

in the

County of Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a Counties of England, county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-e ...

. He sat in the

as a Labour peer. Outside politics, Temple-Morris was appointed Chairman of the

Macleod Group The Macleod Group was a short-lived pressure group and dining club associated with the 'left-wing' of Conservative Party that existed in 1975 before amalgamation with others to form the Tory Reform Group. It was composed of Tories who were consider ...

, an association of left-of-centre Conservative MPs, in 1979. Since 1995, he was President of the British-Iranian Business Association Society. Temple-Morris contributed to the book '' What next for Labour? Ideas for a new generation'' in September 2011, his piece being entitled "Labour: Progressive Politics".

Personal life

Temple-Morris's father,

Owen Temple-Morris Sir Owen Temple-Morris, QC (15 September 1896 – 21 April 1985) was a British barrister and Conservative politician, who sat for Cardiff East from 1931 until being appointed a County Court judge in 1942. The son of Dr Frederick Temple-Morr ...

, was also a Conservative MP. His son,

Eddy Temple-Morris Edward Owen Kayvan Temple-Morris (born 26 April 1965 in Cardiff) is a British DJ, record producer and TV presenter. He hosted London radio station XFM's specialist show ''The Remix'' for 15 years,Virgin Radio Virgin Radio launched in the United Kingdom in 1993. In 2008, Virgin Radio UK was sold to TIML, a subsidiary of The Times of India group, and the name was changed to Absolute Radio; the Virgin Radio name was not included in the sale. In 2001, ...

presenter, record producer and former MTV presenter. Temple-Morris married Taheré Khozeimé-Alam (the daughter of

Amir-Hossein Khozeimé Alam Amir Hossein Khozeimé-Alam (c. 1919 – 2002) was the eldest son of Amir Ma'soum Khan Khozeiméh (Hessamodolleh III), the last ruling Amir of Qaenat and Sistan, in what is now south-eastern Iran. He was a cousin of Amir Asadollah Alam and was mar ...

of Dezashib who fled to London from Iran in 1979)Obituary: Amir Hossein Khozeimé-Alam
, ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'', 25 May 2002 in 1964 in London.End of uneasy Tory marriage of beliefs
,

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, 20 June 1998 The couple had two sons and two daughters.''Dod's Parliamentary Companion''
, Charles Roger Dod, Vacher Dod Publishing, Limited, Robert Phipps Dod, Dod's Parliamentary Companion, Limited, 2004, page 737 When he was an MP, Temple-Morris was known for his love of shooting, wine and food.

References

External links

Lord Temple-Morris - UK Parliament
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Temple-Morris, Peter 1938 births 2018 deaths Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom Labour Party (UK) life peers People educated at The Cathedral School, Llandaff People educated at Malvern College Politics of Herefordshire Politicians from Cardiff UK MPs 1983–1987 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 UK MPs 1987–1992 UK MPs 1992–1997 UK MPs 1997–2001 Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Life peers created by Elizabeth II