Lord John Horam, the former MP and minister who served under governments of three different political colours over a five-decade career in politics, has died aged 87, his family has announced.
Horam died at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington following a fall on 2 July, sustained on his way home after a day working at the House of Lords. Despite receiving care from paramedics and hospital staff, he did not regain consciousness. In a family statement, his widow Judith and stepsons Fraser and Lincoln Jopp thanked the paramedics, police and hospital staff for what they described as the immaculate care he received.
An Unusual Path Through Three Parties
Born in Preston, Lancashire, in March 1939, Horam's career before politics included a stint helping develop the After Eight mint for Rowntree, followed by a period working in journalism.
He entered Parliament in 1970 as the Labour MP for Gateshead West, a seat he held until it was abolished in 1983. In 1981 he was among the group of Labour MPs who broke away to found the Social Democratic Party, joining the SDP at its founding before switching again to the Conservatives in 1987. He returned to the Commons in 1992 as the Conservative MP for Orpington, a seat he held until standing down in 2010, when he was succeeded by Jo Johnson.
Across that unusual trajectory through three parties, Horam went on to serve as a minister in both Labour and Conservative governments. Under James Callaghan's Labour government he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport. Later, under John Major's Conservative government, he served first as Parliamentary Secretary to the Duchy of Lancaster Office and then as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health, a post he held until the 1997 general election.
He was made a working life peer in September 2013, taking the title Baron Horam of Grimsargh, and continued to sit and work in the House of Lords until his death.
A Rare Political Journey
Few figures in modern British politics have represented as many parties in Parliament as Horam did, moving from Labour to the SDP and finally to the Conservatives over the course of his career, while also being trusted with ministerial office by governments from two of those parties. His death removes one of a shrinking number of parliamentarians whose careers bridged the political realignments of the early 1980s and the governments that followed.