Cecil parkinson biography
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Who is Cecil Parkinson and what happened to Sara Keays?
Lord Cecil Parkinson was a political darling of the Thatcher era, rising up from humble originals to become a shining star of the 1980s Conservative Party.
He was a slick minister with mass public appeal – before it all came crashing down.
A Very British Sex Scandal: The Love Child & The Secretary, a new Channel 5 documentary, explores how the ex-MP fathered a daughter with his secretary and began a smear campaign against his former lover of 12 years.
Here is everything you need to know about Lord Parkinson, Sara Keays and their “very British sex scandal”.
Who was Cecil Parkinson?
Lord Parkinson was a British Conservative Party politician and served in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet in four secretary of state roles, including the for trade and energy.
As the son of a railway worker, born in Carnforth, north Lancashire he was unlike many of his privately-educated Tory peers.
After attending a grammar school, Lord P
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Cecil Parkinson
British politician (1931–2016)
"Baron Parkinson" redirects here. For other people titled Lord Parkinson, see Lord Parkinson (disambiguation).
Cecil Edward Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC[1] (1 September 1931 – 22 January 2016) was a British Conservative Party politician and cabinet minister. A chartered accountant by training, he entered Parliament in November 1970, and was appointed a minister in Margaret Thatcher's first government in May 1979. He successfully managed the Conservative Party's 1983 election campaign, and was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but was forced to resign following revelations that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was pregnant with his child, whom she later bore and named Flora Keays.[2] Flora was born with severe cerebral palsy.
Parkinson subsequently served as Secretary of State for Energy, and later Secretary of State for Transport. He resigned that office in 1990, o
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Obituary: Cecil Parkinson
Almost inevitably he, too, suffered criticism, but he did manage to win from the Treasury a substantial increase in the money available for improving Britain's roads and railways.
One of his arch-critics was Labour's chief försändelse spokesman, John Prescott, whom Lord Parkinson denounced for his attitude to frakt tragedies. He was a political vulture, he said, with an almost obscene passion for television appearances.
Lord Parkinson resigned as soon as John Major succeeded Mrs Thatcher as prime minister, but he said he was delighted the party had elected such a fine leader to succeed her, and promised him his total support from the backbenches.
Lord Parkinson stepped down as an MP in 1992 and was elevated to the House of Lords.
While that might have been expected to be the end of his career in frontline politics, he returned to the fray in 1997 when William Hague asked him to repris his previous role of party chairman after their election