Peter Brooke was Westminster’s Renaissance man. In the course of an extraordinary political career, he filled a multitude of roles with a style and gravitas that marked him out as a true gentleman and a consummate negotiator.
Serving in the cabinet under Margaret Thatcher and then John Major, Brooke was chair of the Conservative Party, secretary of state for Northern Ireland, and then national heritage secretary. He was a respected Conservative parliamentarian for 38 years, as the MP for the Cities of London and Westminster and then as a life peer in the House of Lords, retiring in 2015 (under the provisions of the House of Lords Reform Act 2014).
