Paul Williams entered the House of Commons at the age of 30, winning a by-election in Sunderland. It was the first time that the governing party had gained a seat in a by-election since 1924. But his thinking was never in tune with the way in which the central ground in British politics was moving and inevitably he found himself at odds with the Conservative leadership. He was one of the Suez rebels and resigned the whip in May 1957. After the whip was restored, he became something of a thorn in the Government's side over state aid to industries, but his major points of difference were over the Government's rush to decolonisation and its application to join the European Economic Community. After his defeat at the 1964 General Election, he became Chairman of the Monday Club, and, contrary to many people's expectations, sought to steer its natural sympathies for the Ian Smith regime in Southern Rhodesia into more constructive paths. Nevertheless he found himself blocked from contesting the 1966 election and instead embraced an active and successful business career. Although he stood down from the Chairmanship of the Monday Club in 1969, he continued to be a leading figure in attempts to prevent Britain's entry into Europe.
Paul Glyn Williams was born on 14 November 1922, the son of Samuel Williams and his wife Esmée Cail. He was educated at Marlborough College and Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He won a half blue for Athletics and was secretary of the University Conservative Association. On graduating in 1942 he joined the RAF and flew with Transport Command, ending the war as a Flight Lieutenant. His first acquaintance with politics came when he used a period of leave in 1945 to help in the 1945 election, and that seems to have stirred his own political ambitions. However, he built a business career on Tyneside, importing timber and exporting steel tubes. He had close business ties with South Africa and became a director of South African Cordage 1947-54. Subsequently he became a director of Transair 1953-62. He married Barbara Joan Hardy in 1947. Two daughters were born to the marriage but the couple were divorced in 1964. He had resumed his political career in the Young Conservatives, becoming the Northern Area Chairman and a National Vice Chairman.
Williams fought Newcastle East in 1950 and was then selected to fight Sunderland South. In October 1951 he reduced the Labour majority from over 5,000 to 306 and when the victorious Labour MP died eighteen months later, he fought and won the by-election in May 1953 by 1,175 votes. His maiden speech in 1953 was devoted to a defence of the Federation that the Churchill Government had established in Rhodesia and Nyasaland, calling it a “great new British venture in democratic development.” It was a presage of things to come.
Williams soon fell out with the Government. In November 1953 he told the Commons that it was imperative that British troops remained in the Canal Zone to protect the Suez Canal and he went on to advocate British pressure on the Egyptian Government to reopen the Canal to Israeli shipping. In December he signed the motion for suspending negotiations with Egypt and thus became a member of the Suez Group. At first the rebels enjoyed some covert sympathy from the Prime Minister, but when he changed his mind about the usefulness of the base in a nuclear war, the rebels were on their won. The decision to evacuate the base was taken in July 1954 and Williams was one of 13 MPs to vote against his party. He remained critical of the architect of the agreement, Anthony Eden, and when the latter became Prime Minister, he applauded the Daily Telegraph's call for “the smack of firm government”, observing early in 1956 that it had yet to be felt. When King Hussein of Jordan sacked Glubb as commander of the Arab Legion in March 1956, he saw the retention of Britain's position in the Middle East as the test of whether she would remain great, and he was therefore a staunch backer of the Prime Minister as the Suez Crisis developed. He insisted that Egypt was in breach of international law because it barred the Canal against the Israelis and backed the British intervention. When the Americans forced an end to the operation and a step by step withdrawal of British forces, he became an increasingly vocal critic of the United States administration, describing it as “more anti-Colonial than anti-Communist” and concluded that “our prime enemy in the Middle East is not Communism but the United States.” When the Government decided to withdraw from Suez he was one of 15 MPs to abstain on a vote of confidence in the Government, and he watched with increasing despair as the Government continued to appease the United States and ended by capitulating to Nasser's terms rather than continue to boycott the Canal. In disgust eight Conservatives resigned the whip, Williams amongst them.
His constituency association stood by him and, inevitably if reluctantly, he had to come to terms with the fact that if he wished to fight the next election as a Conservative, he would have to rejoin the Parliamentary party. He was one of five Members who successfully sought restoration of the whip in June 1958. He was re-elected for a second time in October 1959, but remained a thorn in the Government's flesh. Initially his criticisms were mainly directed against Government subsidies to industry, but that did not prevent him from seeking support from the Minidster of Transport, Ernest Marples, for a nuclear powered tanker, precursor of a series of ships that would he believed, transform the fortunes of a declining shipbuilding industry. In 1960 Marples seemed close to commissioning such a ship, but the move fell through. Williams was also prescient in warning rather earlier in his career that the cancellation of the V1000 would lead to British airlines buying American.
As it became clear that the Prime Minister and his Colonial Secretary were intent on dismantling the Colonial presence in Africa as speedily as possible, Williams was one of those resolved to fight the move. He also lent strong support to the secessionist cause in Katanga and was bitterly opposed to the use of United Nations forces to bring secession to an end. His conflicts with the leadership soon extended to another front as the Government decided in July 1961 to apply for membership of the EEC and Williams warned of the dangers to national sovereignty.
There was a curious episode in 1962, when Williams, who had been a director of a public relations firm, Hodgkinson Partners, since 1956, recruited the Labour MP Bob Mellish to join them as an industrial peacemaker. The Sunderland Labour party sent an anguished protest to the leader of the labour party that Mellish was joining a “bitter opponent of the welfare state” and Mellish was forced to back out.
Williams lost his seat by 1,566 votes in October 1964. A month later he was elected Chairman of the Monday Club. It had been founded in 1961 to resist Macleod's policies in Africa and Williams had joined it in 1962. Just before the Conservative Government was defeated, he had called for immediate independence for Southern Rhodesia, but once in office, he proved more moderate than many of the Club's supporters. He rallied support for Sir Alec Douglas Home and when the Smith Government in Southern Rhodesia declared UDI, he coupled pressure for a re-opening of negotiations with resistance to overt support for Smith's actions. Nevertheless he found his path back into the House blocked. He had given his backing to a former ally in the Sues Group, Angus Maude, when the latter resigned from the front bench, and had claimed that the party in Parliament appeared “to be neither Conservative nor an opposition ... we must oppose socialism, not condone it." In response Heath declared his thorough disagreement with Williams's views. “They are not the view of the modern Tory party, nor the views of the great majority of people in this country.”
Thereafter Williams began to concentrate on his business career, becoming the chairman of s hotel and restaurant group, Mount Charlotte Investments, and restoring its fortunes. He chaired the company for eleven years and attracted widespread praise in the City. Subsequently he chaired the Backer Electric Company Ltd 1978-87 and Henry Sykes 1980-83. He was also a director of Minster Executive 1977-83.
His political career virtually came to an end in 1969 when resigned the Chairmanship of the Monday Club, although not before he had transformed it into a much more influential pressure group on the right of the party, campaigning on a whole range of issues, including opposition to Labour's plans for House of Lords reform and withdrawal from East of Suez. In contrast to his earlier views, he also led a Grosvenor Square demonstration in support of the United States over the Vietnam war. His term of office drew to a close amidst considerable controversy over the Club's support for Enoch Powell. It brought the club many new members, but one of the founders, Paul Bristol, resigned. He accused Williams of letting in people who would better have been kept out. In his final Chairman's address in April 1969, Williams called for "patriotism and moral rejuvenation, and a return for self-respect in the individual and the nation". When he stood down in the following October he gave two reasons, his business commitments and his wish to concentrate on opposition to any new bid for membership of the EEC. He remained on the executive until 1973, when he became one of the Club's Vice Presidents.
After retiring from his business appointments in 1983, he remained a consultant to P-E International 1983-91 and Hogg Robinson Career Services 1991-5. He had remarried in 1964 and with his new wife, Gillian, had another daughter. He died on 10 September 2008.