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Ex-speaker Lord Weatherill dies | Ex-speaker Lord Weatherill dies |
(30 minutes later) | |
The former Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Weatherill, has died at the age of 86. | The former Speaker of the House of Commons, Lord Weatherill, has died at the age of 86. |
The peer served as speaker from 1983 to 1992, and oversaw the introduction of television cameras into the chamber. | |
Lord (Bernard) Weatherill died at the Marie Curie Community Hospice in Caterham, Surrey, on Sunday night after a short illness. | |
His son Bruce Weatherill, who informed the BBC and the House of Lords, said: "We will all miss him greatly." | His son Bruce Weatherill, who informed the BBC and the House of Lords, said: "We will all miss him greatly." |
Even temper | |
BBC political correspondent Guto Harri said Lord Weatherill was widely admired for his fairness, even temper and support for backbenchers' rights. | |
I don't know what this place is coming to, Tom, they've got my tailor in here now Tory MP, overheard by Lord Weatherill | |
Bernard Weatherill was educated at Malvern College before being apprenticed into the family's Saville Row tailoring business. | |
He served in the Indian army during World War II and rose to the rank of captain. | |
He was elected to Parliament as Conservative MP for Croydon North East - a seat he held until his retirement in 1992. | |
The then-prime minister, Baroness Thatcher, tried to block his election to the post of speaker, and his private papers released in 2003 revealed their behind-the-scenes rows. | |
Although Lord Weatherill was a Tory MP, in the Lords he was convenor of the crossbench peers and his father was a member of the Independent Labour Party. | |
He told MPs of the time he was mocked by Tory grandees for his former profession before his maiden speech. | |
"I was so frightened I must tell the House that I spent most of it locked away in a room not a million miles from this chamber," he recalled. | |
"And my confidence was not increased when I heard a familiar voice say to one of his friends: 'I don't know what this place is coming to, Tom, they've got my tailor in here now.' " |