Norman Tebbit was born to working class parents on March 29th 1931. He was bright and won a place at Edmonton County Grammar School. He left school aged sixteen and got a job working for the Financial Times. He had to join NATSOPA and developed an intense dislike of union power and vowed to "break the power of the closed shop". He was called up in 1950 and commissioned into the RAF with the rank of pilot officer. He was subsequently promoted to flying officer and flew Meteor and Vampire jets. He joined BOAC in 1953 and flew a variety of passenger planes from Britannias to the Boeing 707.
At the June 1970 General Election he was elected Conservative MP for Epping and at the 1974 election for Chingford. He got public attention in 1975 by calling Michael Foot a 'Fascist'. Six men had been dismissed from their jobs when a closed shop was introduced, they were refused unemployment benefit. Foot was the Secretary of State for Employment and declared: "A person who declines to fall in with new conditions of employment which result from a collective agreement may well be considered to have brought about his own dismissal". Tebbit accused him of "pure undiluted fascism". On December 2nd 1975 the Times leader asked "IS MR FOOT A FASCIST?" it quoted Tebbit and went on: "Mr. Foot's doctrine is intolerable because it is a violation of the liberty of the ordinary man in his job. Mr. Tebbit is therefore using fascism in a legitimate descriptive sense when he accuses Mr. Foot of it. We perhaps need to revive the phrase "social fascism" to describe the modern British development of the corporate state and its bureaucratic attack on personal liberty. The question is not therefore: "is Mr. Foot a fascist?" but "does Mr. Foot know he is a fascist?"
After the 1979 General Election, he joined the government and in 1981 he was promoted to Employment Secretary. He introduced the Employment Act 1982. It made trade unions liable for civil damages if they committed unlawful acts, and made injunctions possible against such acts. It provided for secret ballots and pre-strike ballots and outlawed closed shops unless agreed by 80% of workers. It also provided compensation for those unfairly dismissed from a closed shop. Destroying the tyranny of the closed shop and making Unions responsible for their actions was, he said, his greatest political achievement. It also fulfilled the promise he'd made as a 16 year old.
He worked closely with and supported Margaret Thatcher, but was certainly no 'yes' man, disagreeing with her on a number of issues. The 1984 IRA bomb attack on the Grand Hotel Brighton during the Conservative party conference caused serious injury to him and his wife. They had fallen through four floors and lay trapped for hours before being rescued. Sadly his wife was paralysed for the rest of her life. He was back at work after three months. The incident changed his life as he eschewed political ambition to care for his wife. In 1985 he became Chairman of the Conservative Party,
During the 1990 leadership campaign he worked hard to get Margaret Thatcher elected. He then refused to put himself forward and resigned at the 1992 election.
He was an early critic of the EEC and his opposition strengthened as it morphed into the EU. He was President of the Bruges Group and during a Bruges Group conference. He observed: "They (Supporters of EU integration) constitute some scant cover for the real pushers – the armies of the self-interested. There are great careers and huge fortunes to be made in the business of the globalisation of government as well as through the globalisation of economic activity. Well then, it is not only all inevitable, but a good thing is it not?
Well, not necessarily. There is a problem. As we know, Enoch Powell was right when he observed that the European Community (As it was then) could not be made democratic since there was no European demos. And that is overwhelmingly, obviously, absolutely true of world government".
Norman Tebbit, like his friend Margaret Thatcher, believed in aspiration. Hard work, self reliance and common sense guided his life and invaluable contribution to Britain. He saw Socialism as an enemy of progress and bar to working people, like himself, fulfilling their potential. He died at the age of 94 on July 7th 2025. His wife, Margaret, predeceased him in 2020. He was a great man of principle and courage.
