The nation is saying farewell to one of the giants of British politics as Norman Tebbit is laid to rest following his death three weeks ago. Mourners at his funeral, at St Edmundsbury Cathedral in Bury St Edmunds, include friends, family and senior politicians including former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
Lord Tebbit was one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest politician allies and played a key role in the Tory government that reshaped the United Kingdom in the 1980s. He died peacefully at home on July 7 aged 94. He served as employment secretary, taking on the trade unions, and as chairman of the Conservative Party from 1985 to 1987, when he helped Mrs Thatcher secure her third general election victory.
He also served as trade secretary and had a reputation as a political bruiser.
Lord Tebbit was injured in an IRA bombing during the Conservative Party conference in Brighton in 1984, which left his wife, Margaret, paralysed from the neck down.
After the 1987 election success he left full time politics and focused on caring for his wife, who died in 2020.
Lord Tebbit famously recalled in 1981 that his unemployed father in the 1930s “got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it.” It meant he was popularly known as the politician who told the unemployed to get “on your bike!”, although those were not his words.
He left the Commons in 1992 and became a member of the House of Lords.
Sir Iain was due a reading at the funeral service, with the eulogy to be delivered by Tory peer and author Lord Michael Dobbs.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Lord Tebbit was an “icon in British politics”, adding that his death would cause “sadness across the political spectrum”.
Former prime minister Boris Johnson described him as “a hero of modern Conservatism” and “great patriot” whose values were needed “today more than ever”.
Lord Tebbit’s family have asked that any donations go to St Nicholas Hospice and the East Anglian Air Ambulance charity.