Michael Ancram

Born: July 7, 1945

Died: October 1, 2024

Michael Ancram, who has died aged 79, was a genial one nation Conservative politician tasked by Margaret Thatcher with steering the deeply unpopular poll tax through parliament, and later charged by John Major with initiating negotiations with the IRA during the early stages of the Northern Ireland peace process.

The aristocrat was born in July 1945 to the Earl of Ancram, a whip in Alec Douglas-Home's government and a junior minister in Ted Heath's Foreign Office.

The family’s seats included Monteviot, Jedburgh, in the Borders, and Melbourne Hall in Melbourne, Derbyshire.

He went to school at Ampleforth College before heading to Christ Church, Oxford to read history. After graduating, he went on to study law at the University of Edinburgh.

It was here in 1967 that he founded the Thistle Group, a group of Conservatives who supported Scottish devolution which also included fellow students Malcolm Rifkind and Peter Fraser.

He started work as an advocate in Edinburgh but was keen to enter parliament.

Michael Ancram and George Younger introduce the Conservative party's manifesto for Scotland in 1983 (Image: SMG Newspapers Ltd) A keen folk musician and talented guitarist, he spent time busking around Italy before standing in the 1970 general election against Labour’s Tam Dalyell in West Lothian. Unlike previous Tory candidates in the seat, he was unable to secure the support of the local Orange Lodge, who could not any under any circumstances back the Catholic.

Dalyell later said Ancram was the most able candidate who had ever stood against him, though he claimed much of this was down to Ancram’s mother, Antonella Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian.

Four years later the Tory went on to win the Berwickshire and East Lothian constituency by just 540 votes. He only held the seat for eight months, losing it back to Labour when Harold Wilson called a second election.

Ancram returned to the Commons in 1979, winning Edinburgh South, defeating a young Gordon Brown.

Thatcher appointed him to the Scotland Office in 1983, where his responsibilities included the bill for the poll tax.

The legislation was hated north of the border where it was being implemented ahead of England and Wales and almost certainly led to the loss of his seat at the 1987 election.

By the time of the 1992 election, he moved to England, contesting the Wiltshire constituency of Devizes. It was a seat he won handsomely, holding it until he retired in 2010.

Read more obituaries

After his victory, he was made a junior minister in the Northern Ireland office where there was a requirement that the ministerial team included a Catholic.

He was soon promoted to minister of state and was responsible for drafting what became the Anglo-Irish Agreement.

In 1995, after a series of negotiations with the Unionists, Ancram, who had been in Brighton’s Grand Hotel when it was bombed by the IRA in 1984, became the first British minister to negotiate openly with Sinn Féin.

Following Tony Blair’s victory in 1997, he became the shadow minister for constitutional affairs where he was forced to oppose Labour’s commitment to devolution to Scotland and Wales, despite previously speaking up in favour of home rule.

Writing in The Herald shortly after the referendum on devolution, he said his party would do what it could to make the new settlement work.

“The referendum on September 11 changed the constitutional landscape of Scotland and the United Kingdom forever. We accept that reality and as Conservatives we start afresh from where we now find ourselves.”

He became chairman of the Tories in 1998, a position he held until 2001 when he resigned to enter his party's leadership contest.

His bid to unite the party saw him tied in last place with David Davis after the first round. In a rerun of the ballot, he finished one vote behind his rival.

The party eventually opted for Ian Duncan Smith, who made Ancram his deputy leader.

Mr Duncan Smith took to social media to describe his former right hand man as a “huge support” and “a stable voice at times of difficult decision making.”

(Image: Margaret Thatcher)

“I will miss him enormously and my party and country have lost a great public servant,” he added.

He remained deputy leader when Michael Howard took over the leadership of the party in 2003 and served as shadow defence secretary until 2005, resigning on the election of David Cameron as party leader.

He stood down in 2010, citing health problems, though he had been caught up in the MPs’ expenses scandal the year before. Despite being worth £27m, he claimed £14,000 at his second home for gardening expenses, moss removal from his house and Aga servicing.

He eventually repaid £98.58 for repair work to the swimming pool boiler.

Shortly after standing down from the Commons in 2010 he joined the House of Lords by virtue of a life peerage, becoming Baron Kerr of Monteviot.

Lord Lothian inherited his title in 2004 from his father, becoming the 13th Marquis of Lothian. He was also the hereditary chief of the Scottish Clan Kerr.

In his later years, Lord Lothian remained active in public life, serving on the Intelligence and Security Committee from 2006.

Lord Lothian is survived by his wife, Lady Jane Fitzalan-Howard, the 16th Lady Herries of Terregles, whom he married in 1975 and by their daughters Clare and Mary.

His eldest daughter Sarah, died in birth in 1979.

He was also grandfather to three grandchildren and a step-grandfather to five.

At The Herald, we carry obituaries of notable people from the words of business, politics, arts and sport but sometimes we miss people who have led extraordinary lives. That's where you come in. If you know someone who deserves an obituary, please consider telling us about their lives. Contact garry.scott@heraldandtimes.co.uk