Peter Leonard Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, CH, PC (born 3 March 1934), is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet under Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and was a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Cities of London and Westminster from 1977-2001.
He is the son of Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, a former Home Secretary, and Barbara Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte. (His parents were one of the few married couples where both partners held noble titles in their own right.) He was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford, (where he was President of the Oxford Union) before going on to the Harvard Business School in the United States. After leaving university he worked as a headhunter and was Chairman of Spencer Stuart.
He was elected as MP for the Cities of London and Westminster in 1977. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1988. He was made Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1987, and then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1989. He remained in this position until the reshuffle after the 1992 general election. After the 1992 general election, Brooke left the Cabinet and stood unsuccessfully for the position of Speaker of the House of Commons. (The House instead elected the Labour MP Betty Boothroyd to the role, with several Conservative MPs voting against Brooke on the grounds that he had too recently been in the Cabinet and was thus not sufficiently close to the backbenches.) Brooke then remained on the backbenches for a short time before being brought back into the Cabinet later in the year as Secretary of State for National Heritage, a role he held until 1994. During his time as Heritage Secretary, he oversaw the restoration of Windsor Castle following the fire that had struck the state apartments in 1992.
Brooke stepped down as an MP at the 2001 general election and was made a life peer as Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville of Sutton Mandeville in the County of Wiltshire in October 2001. He was Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers. He was appointed Companion of Honour, as his father had been, in 1992.
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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Preceded by Christopher Tugendhat |
Member of Parliament for the City of London and Westminster South 1977–1997 |
Constituency abolished |
New constituency | Member of Parliament for the Cities of London and Westminster 1997–2001 |
Succeeded by Mark Field |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by Norman Tebbit |
Chairman of the Conservative Party 1987–1989 |
Succeeded by Kenneth Baker |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Kenneth Clarke |
Paymaster General 1987–1989 |
Succeeded by The Earl of Caithness |
Preceded by Tom King |
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1989–1992 |
Succeeded by Patrick Mayhew |
Preceded by David Mellor |
Secretary of State for National Heritage 1992–1994 |
Succeeded by Stephen Dorrell |
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