Robert Alistair McAlpine, Baron McAlpine of West Green (born 14 May 1942), is often known as Alistair McAlpine.
He became a life peer in 1984 as Baron McAlpine of West Green of West Green in the County of Hampshire. In the 1990s he had a high-profile business collapse in Australia.
McAlpine was a prominent Conservative peer, close in his views to Margaret Thatcher. He had been both Treasurer and Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party. In 1996, he defected to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party and in 1997 became its leader following Goldsmith's death. He sat as an Independent Conservative for some time in the House of Lords before rejoining the Conservatives. In 2010 he stepped down from his seat in the House of Lords in order to maintain his non-domiciled status and so be able to avoid paying UK residents' taxes.[1]
A bon vivant, patron of the arts and author, he pursued these interests with considerable vigour. He founded his own publishing house in London in the 1960s, and has variously been an art dealer, collector, member of the Arts Council, zookeeper (in Broome, Western Australia), gardener and traveller.