Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft

George Edward Peter Thorneycroft, Baron Thorneycroft CH PC (26 July 1909 – 4 June 1994), was a British Conservative Party politician.

Thorneycroft was educated at Eton and then was called to the bar. He was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Stafford at a by-election in 1938, but lost the seat at the 1945 general election. He returned to Parliament at a by-election in October 1945 as MP for Monmouth in South Wales, and held that seat until his defeat at the 1966 general election. After his first marriage and divorce, he married his second wife Carla, Contesssa Roberti in 1949.

He served as President of the Board of Trade under Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden. In 1957, Harold Macmillan appointed him Chancellor of the Exchequer, one of the most senior positions in the government. He resigned in 1958, along with two junior Treasury Ministers, Enoch Powell and Nigel Birch, in objection to increased government expenditure. Macmillan, himself a former Chancellor, made a famous and much-quoted remark to the effect that the resignations were merely "a little local difficulty". In reality, Macmillan was deeply concerned about the possible effects of Thorneycroft's resignation, but chose to hide his worries from public view. The phrase is now so well-known that most people do not know what or to whom it refers.

Thorneycroft returned to the Cabinet in 1960 and held a number of posts in government and then in opposition under Macmillan and Alec Douglas-Home. Ted Heath, who became leader of the party in 1965, had been Chief Whip when Thorneycroft resigned in 1958 and had seen the resignation as a betrayal. Thorneycroft lost his seat at the 1966 general election and received a life peerage, taking a seat in the House of Lords as Baron Thorneycroft, of Dunston in the County of Stafford. Thorneycroft was a strong supporter of Margaret Thatcher's monetarist policies, and Thatcher made him Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1975. He held this position until 1981. He was notable as an amateur watercolourist and held exhibitions. He had a son, by his first wife and a daughter by his second wife, Lady Carla Thorneycroft.

References

• Craig, F. W. S. [1969] (1983). British parliamentary election results 1918-1949, 3rd edition, Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. ISBN 0-900178-06-X. 
• This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.

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