British politician, a member of the Conservative Party, who served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–1983), Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1983–1985), and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Chairman of the Conservative Party (1985–1987). He was a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1970 to 1992, representing the constituencies of Epping (1970–1974) and Chingford (1974–1992).
Tebbit was a journalist for the Financial Times before doing four years of military service in the Royal Air Force. He moved into politics in 1970 and has represented the Chingford constituency ever since. Tebbit was a close ally of Margaret Thatcher. He served in her Cabinet as Minister of Labor and Minister of Trade and Industry (October 1983 to September 1985), among other positions. He was party leader of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1987.
He was seriously injured in an IRA bomb attack in Brighton on 12 October 1984. His wife Margaret suffered paraplegia and was thereafter permanently confined to a wheelchair. In 1987, Tebbit resigned from the Cabinet as a minister to spend more time with his wife.
During his chairmanship of the Conservative Party in 1986, Tebbit led the right-wing campaign against a BBC program on the American bombing of Tripoli. He also became known for the “cricket test,” also known as the “Tebbit Test,” in which he suggested that immigrants and their descendants in Britain should not be considered truly British until they supported the England cricket team against the team of their own country of origin.
In August 2005, following the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks in London carried out by three young men of Pakistani origin and one of Jamaican origin, Tebbit called for the rehabilitation of his position. Tebbit is still a highly influential figure in the Conservative Party as a representative of the party’s right wing and vice president of the Conservative Way Forward group. He remains an extreme Eurosceptic, and his stated views on race and immigration during his career earned him both support and opprobrium – his nickname as a parliamentary candidate was “Chingford Skinhead.” He provoked another fierce reaction in 2004 with his outspoken opposition to the British government’s proposed legislation to give legal recognition to same-sex partnerships.
Link to Wikipedia biography