Not everybody liked Eric Forth - he had wrecked too many private Members bills for that - but there was genuine sadness on all sides in the House of Commons on Thursday at the premature death of a formidable Parliamentarian and a character fit to rub shoulders with some of the more colourful MPs of the past century. He was an unashamed right wing libertarian Conservative, but in office as a junior minister and subsequently Minister of State at the Department of Education he won compliments all round for his handling of the tricky question of special education. Subsequently in opposition, he was named as Opposition MP of the Year by the House Magazine in 2000 and Iain Duncan Smith asked him to serve as shadow Leader of the House when he became leader of the Conservative party in 2001. His mastery of Parliamentary procedure stood him good stead and when the Prime Minister was away, he waged some memorable duels with Robin Cook. However, he became disillusioned with his leader, so much so that he was openly critical of him. He backed David Davis to succeed him. When Davis chose not to fight and Michael Howard emerged unopposed as the new Leader of the party, Forth was not included in the front bench team. Not a whit abashed, he used his forensic skills to campaign vigorously from the backbenches against any extension of gay rights and against the ban on fox hunting. Although he backed Davis for the leadership when Michael Howard stood down after the 2005 election, he did so relatively unobtrusively, believing it to be unhelpful if he took a more prominent position in the Davis campaign. Latterly he had conducted a sustained campaign against the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill. To the last he was a man of independent judgment and forthright, if unfashionable views.
It was only in his last few days that he ceased to attend the House, but few realised that he had been afflicted with bone cancer. He died at Charing Cross Hospital in the early hours of 18 May 2006 with his second wife by his side.
Born on 9 September 1944 in Glasgow, he was the son of a deputy harbourmaster, William Forth, and his wife Aileen. He was educated at Jordanhill College, where he had a youthful flirtation with Communism, and at the University of Glasgow, where he read politics and became Chairman of the Conservative Club. Successively he earned his living as a buyer for Ford Motors 1966-8, a representative for Burroughs Machines 1968-70, and an audit manager for Rank Xerox. But politics was already his first love and in 1968 he secured election to the Brentwood Urban District Council, serving until 1972. He moved into consultancy on systems development with Robson, Morrow & Co and in the February and October general elections in 1974 took on the hopeless task of trying to dislodge Jo Richardson from Barking.
Throughout the late 60s and early 70s he campaigned hard for British entry into the EEC, and it was no great surprise when his ambitions next sought an outlet in the European parliament. He became the MEP for Birmingham North in May 1979, but experience in Brussels and Strasbourg turned him into a Euro-sceptic. In 1983 he published Regional Policy - a fringe benefit?, a pamphlet disavowed by all his fellow Conservative MEPs. By then he had been selected for a Westminster seat, winning Mid Worcestershire in June 1983. His maiden speech was devoted to opposing the Sex Equality bill, and he came out if favour of the restoration of the death penalty in July 1983.
As a backbencher he appeared to be a solid right winger, but one who knew his own mind and was on occasion prepared to defy the whips. He had supported the Rugby Football Unions proposal to tour South Africa in February 1984 and was subsequently invited to visit South Africa. Thereafter he was a strong supporter of talking to the South African government. On Europe he came out against enlargement and favoured measures to curb EU spending. In October 1985 he voted against the Government's legislation to increase Britain's contribution to the EU budget. In June 1986 he was the sole dissenter from the Employment Select Committee's recommendation that there should be a guaranteed job for all those out of work for more than a year. Applauding the American view that the customer was always right, he was a staunch supporter of privatisation, but his economic liberalism also led him to criticise open-ended support to home buyers in trouble. Both in public and in private he pressed the case for NHS reform, publicly endorsing a French style solution to its problems and privately putting to Mrs Thatcher in May 1988 the proposition that patients should have a right to treatment with money following them wherever they chose to get it. Some of his more pungent phraseology caught the attention of the headline writers, as when he criticised spending on the aids campaign since it was "largely self-inflicted" - he would rather see the money spent on dialysis. In April 1988 he campaigned against Clare Short's bill to ban Page 3 girls on the grounds that the girls concerned had chosen "to display for profit whatever assets they possess.... and exploit the male population".
Forth's ability had led to his chairmanship of the backbench committee of the European Democratic Group between 1979 and 1984 and he was elected Vice Chairman 1984-6 and then in 1986 Chairman of the Conservative backbench European Affairs Committee. The whips too had an eye on him. He briefly became PPS to the Minister of State at the DES 1986-7 and in 1988 was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary at the DTI. His ministerial career falls into two distinct phases. Believing strongly that he was part of a non interventionist department, and sure of full backing from his minister, he vigorously opposed the Consumer Guarantees Bill put forward by the National Consumer Council and subsequently systematically blocked the mild measure on the same subject that a private member introduced in March 1990. However when estate agents refused to adopt a voluntary code, he announced measures to curb unscrupulous practices and it was at his instance that Sir Gordon Borrie recommended tough measures against high pressure sales of time shares. However, as Matthew Parris shrewdly observed he often had to take a line with which he privately disagreed, and often contented himself with reading out his brief in an uncharacteristically boring - and bored way. When Ridley resigned, he was shifted to become Michael Howard's junior at Employment, where he enjoyed resisting European efforts to legislate on the rights of pregnant women, clashed with Cornish businessmen in search of subsidy, and slightly unexpectedly furthered the greening of his department. Although he had backed John Major for the leadership, he had become a member of the No Turning Back Group in 1990 and was reported in the Financial Times to be contemplating resignation in December 1991 over the Maastricht Treaty. Major switched him to the Department of Education after the 1992 election, but he was known to be discussing with ministerial dissidents whether they should vote against the Treaty. In the end appeals to his loyalty prevailed.
He had often seemed ill at ease in his earlier ministerial posts, not altogether in tune with what he was being asked to defend, and he had clearly been unhappy at having to announce that privatisation of the post office was not yet to happen. At Education it was a different story. He clearly believed in the policy of including special needs children in mainstream education and was able to publish a new code of practice, which was widely recognised to have owed much to his personal interest and involvement. He was also concerned to limit expulsions and to ensure that those excluded received a decent education. He also pushed ahead with greater devolution of funding to schools and with simplifying the funding formula. But he was concerned also to ensure good management of those funds and clear accountabilities. Truancy and bullying also attracted his attention. At a rather unhappy time for the Department, he seemed to have a safe pair of hands, and while ready to defend the testing regime vigorously, he welcomed the Dearing Report on the National Curriculum as the basis for a new consensus. Subsequently he pushed ahead with plans to measure value added and to create baseline testing.
Clearly unhappy with Major's leadership, he had wanted Portillo to run against him and he refused subsequently to say whom he had voted for as between Major and Redwood in 1995. But his success at Education earned him promotion to the rank of Minister of State with responsibility for higher education and he made valiant efforts to deliver the privatisation of student loans in the teeth of resistance from the banks. He also defended the right of Sinn Fein speakers to address student audiences. Subsequently when Gillian Shephard reorganised the department, he was given the job of piloting a major education measure through the Commons, including an extension of the ability of schools to select, and was able to have a great deal of fun with the way in which Tony Blair and Harriet Harman had chosen schools for their children. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1997.
Boundary changes were likely to cost him his seat, but he successfully transferred to the new Bromley and Chislehurst seat, winning it handsomely in 1997 and holding it at subsequent General Elections. He organised Peter Lilley's leadership campaign when Major immediately stood down from the leadership following Labour's landslide victory in 1997, switching to Redwood, but in the final run off his vote went to Hague. He spent the next four years as a brilliant exponent of what he described as "trench warfare" in the Commons, using his mastery of Parliamentary procedure to delay and disrupt bills he disagreed with. He had become a fervent opponent of unnecessary lawmaking. He was responsible for torpedoing at four or five bills and there were accusations from those who suffered from his efforts that he was misusing procedure. He seemed immune to such criticism. Perhaps his finest moment came when in 1999 he caused the Government, despite its massive majority, to lose a day's business and impose a guillotine on the Local Government bill.
He came into his own in his brief period as shadow leader of the House in Iain Duncan Smith's shadow cabinet and David Cameron was right to pay tribute to his work "as a masterclass in how you can use the House of Commons to hold governments to account. He had a great mastery of detail combined with an incisive wit and an unbeatable sense of timing." He greatly enjoyed his weekly jousts with Robin Cook and the tribute he paid when Cook died could well be applied to Forth himself. Wholly committed to Parliament, he and the shadow leader of the Lords set out plans in February 2002 for strengthening the Commons and particularly the select committees and for an elected element in the House of Lords. Openly critical of his leader, he clearly hoped to bring on a contest in which David Davis would come to the fore. He was appalled therefore when Davis chose not to run, but their friendship did not suffer. His sacking from the front bench must have been a blow, but one that Forth took in his stride. When Michael Howard stood down after the 2005 election, Forth refused to take a prominent part in the leadership election but threw his full weight behind Davis's campaign. Cameron's victory brought with it the realisation that he could not hope to return to front bench politics. He told his friends that they must rally behind Cameron, and he did so. Although their personal relationship was good, he was privately critical of many of the positions taken by the new leader and still more of the A list of candidates compiled by Central Office. When Davis gave a thank you dinner for friends and supporters in January, Forth could not resist the temptation to add, when drinking to the end of Blairism, a mordant aside, "especially in the Conservative party".
Forth was amongst the most quick-witted of Parliamentarians and a genuine wit. He had been particularly severe recently on the new Liberal leader, Ming Campbell. One of the funniest and most destructive episodes came when Campbell sought to ask a question about pensions. Forth called out, "declare your interest", and Campbell's question petered out amidst the laughter which followed.
Forth was a colourful sight in the Commons with his garish ties and colourful waistcoats, the colours often clashing. He was an Elvis Presley fanatic and loved country and western music. He also loved jewellery, and columnists like Matthew Parris used to mock him. He once wrote, "if he does not have LOVE tattooed on one set of knuckles and HATE on the other, it must be because he is reserving them for something even ruder." Forth never resented, in fact seemed to enjoy the gibes, and it was Parris in his tribute who caught the real flavour of the man: "showy yet thoughtful, noisy yet deep, rude yet generous. Above all he loved argument, believed in reason and had the casual careless confidence of a true Thatcherite believer."