He held a series of roles in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet, but left high office to care for his wife, who was seriously hurt in a bombing by the Irish Republican Army.

In a Conservative party full of old Etonians and toffs, Tebitt was one of very few cabinet ministers from a working-class background. He revelled in his reputation as a working-class bruiser.

The Conservative grandee, who is survived by two sons and a daughter, was one of Margaret Thatcher’s closest political allies and played a key role in Tory Party politics. He suffered grave injuries in the IRA’s 1984 Brighton bombing, and it took four hours for fire crews to extricate him and his wife, Margaret, from the wreckage.