Basil Peto was the Conservative MP for Devizes from 1910-18 and for Barnstaple 1922-23 and again from 1924 until 1935. An Imperialist and strong tariff Reformer, he fell out with the Conservative whips over a number of issues in the latter years of Baldwin’s second administration, but only lost the whip when he insisted on dividing the House on the Naval Prize Bill. He retained the full confidence of his constituency association and the whip was restored to him in the following session. He had an inflexible determination to succeed in anything he undertook and the confidence to believe that whatever he undertook was honourable and right. It was not for nothing that he earned the nickname in the House of Commons of “Persistent Peto”.
Basil Peto was born on 13 August 1862, the seventh son of Sir Samuel Morton Peto of Somerleyton, the baronetcy having been created in 1855. He was educated at Harrow, but at the age of 17, when his father suffered a financial reverse, he was removed from school and apprenticed to a joiner and worked at a bench. He worked in the family building firm of Peto Brothers, Pimlico and was made a partner in 1884. He was well on the way to establishing sufficient fortune to retire to the countryside that he loved, when at the age of 35, his strong belief in co-partnership and that his workforce deserved to share in the firm’s profits led paradoxically to a general strike of all building operatives to prevent him from putting such a scheme into operation. As a result he lost his entire fortune and the means to earn a livelihood. With marriage in prospect, he wasted no time, but borrowed enough to start in another business and from 1891 until 1903 was actively associated with the Morgan Crucible Company Ltd, serving as their managing director. His duties in connection with the mining and buying of plumbago frequently took him abroad and in the 1880s he spent much time in the United States and Canada. He was later to revisit them more than once and he also indulged his love of travel with visits to India and Ceylon. He was thus able to speak with some authority on Imperial questions.
He had married Mary Matilda Annie, the daughter of Captain T.C.Baird of the Dorsetshire Regiment in 1892 and their son James Michael Peto was born on 8 may 1894. Two other sons followed. Major John Peto became the Conservative MP for Kings Norton in January 1941, succeeding Ronald Cartland, while Brigadier Christopher Peto (1897-1980), a member of Montgomery’s staff, was elected as the Conservative MP for Barnstaple in 1945 and served until 1950. He took over the new Devon North seat 1950-55. Christopher was to succeed his eldest brother as the 3rd Baronet.
When Basil Peto felt that he had achieved all he wanted in his private affairs, he turned to public life and was elected for Devizes, regaining a seat that had been lost to the Liberals in 1906. His maiden speech was made on 4 March 1910 and consisted of a sharp attack on The Treasury (Temporary Borrowing) Bill. He held it until 1918 and proved a capable Member. During the First World War he served as Commissioner for the repatriation of Belgian refugees.
In 1922 he was returned for Barnstaple, but lost the seat in December 1923. Regaining it in 1924, he operated somewhat independently of the Conservative whips. He had criticised his own Government on their attitude to the Irish loyalists and over the safeguarding of Iron and Steel. He was also one of the leading opponents of the Racecourse Betting Bill. But it was not until the report stage of the Naval Prize Bill that he lost the whip. The Government regarded the Bill as uncontentious and when the Opposition indicated that they would not vote against it, Eyres Monsell, the Conservative Chief Whip, allowed his own MPs to depart. Peto had put down an amendment and even though it was after midnight, insisted on going to a division. The amendment was lost by 83 votes to 19, but Peto had committed the cardinal sin of securing the votes of two other Tory MPs. Eyres Monsell removed the whip from him, but it was restored in the following session. Throughout Peto had maintained the full support of his own Association and he was duly returned to the House at the 1929 General Election and again in 1931, although by only 1,710 votes. He regularly campaigned at budget time for tax relief on inherently wasting assets. When the Government of India Bill was introduced he voted against the second reading. In 1934 he indicated that he would not contest his seat again, but make way for a younger man. He remained in close touch with politics through his membership of the Empire Industries Association, the 1900 Club and the Chamberlain Club. He was a frequent writer to The Times and his last letter to the Editor on 3 January 1945 was concerned with ‘Partners in Industry’.
He was active in raising money to buy and present the Watersmeet Valley on Exmoor to the National Trust in 1936.
Despite his problems with the whips he had been made a baronet in his own right in 1927. He had the reputation in the House of being extremely well-informed about agriculture and those branches of industry with which he had been closely associated. At heart, however, he remained a countryman, never happier than when studying the soil he intended to put under cultivation or fishing quietly from a river bank.
He died at Iford Gatehouse near Bradford-on-Avon on 28 January 1945 and a memorial service was held at St Margaret’s, Westminster on 27 February 1945.