1. Eric Forth was a British Conservative politician.
27 Facts About Eric Forth
1. 2.
Eric Forth served as Member of the European Parliament for Birmingham North from 1979 to 1984.
3.
Eric Forth then served as Member of Parliament for Mid Worcestershire from 1983 to 1997.
4.
Eric Forth was noted for his colourful ties and waistcoats.
5.
Eric Forth was educated at the Jordanhill College School and the University of Glasgow, where he was awarded a master's degree in politics and economics.
6.
Eric Forth was elected as a councillor for the Pilgrims Hatch ward on the Brentwood Urban District Council from 1968 to 1972.
7.
Eric Forth contested the safe Labour seat of Barking at both the February and October 1974 general elections, where on both occasions he was defeated by Labour's Jo Richardson.
8.
Eric Forth was the secretary of Llandeilo Conservative Association from 1975 to 1977, and chairman of the Ross-on-Wye Conservative Political Committee from 1978 to 1979.
9.
Eric Forth was elected to the European Parliament as the member for Birmingham North in 1979.
10.
Eric Forth remained in Brussels and Strasbourg until 1984, where he founded and chaired the backbench committee of the European Democratic Group.
11.
Eric Forth was elected to the House of Commons at the 1983 general election with a majority of 14,205 votes for the new seat of Mid-Worcestershire.
12.
Eric Forth found a safe seat in the Outer London suburbs for Bromley and Chislehurst in the heart of the large London Borough of Bromley.
13.
Eric Forth was elected to represent the seat in 1997,2001 and 2005.
14.
Eric Forth entered the government of Margaret Thatcher when she appointed him as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry in 1988, as minister for consumer affairs.
15.
Eric Forth was moved by John Major in 1990 to the same position at the Department for Employment and at the Department of Education following the 1992 general election.
16.
Eric Forth was promoted to Minister of State for Education in 1994 and became a member of the Privy Council in 1996, shortly before leaving office in 1997.
17.
Eric Forth had hoped to support Michael Portillo for the leadership of the Conservative Party, to follow Major, but Portillo famously lost his seat in the 1997 general election.
18.
Eric Forth was then Peter Lilley's campaign manager until the latter withdrew, then supported John Redwood, and finally backed eventual winner William Hague.
19.
Eric Forth refused the offer of a place in the Conservative shadow ministerial team and instead became a leading backbench irritant to the Labour government, engaging in "a Parliamentary form of guerrilla warfare".
20.
Eric Forth backed David Davis to replace Duncan Smith in 2003: Davis refused to stand, and Eric Forth was dismissed from his front-bench position by Michael Howard.
21.
Eric Forth served on many Parliamentary committees and his last role was chairing the statutory instruments committee.
22.
Eric Forth was a member of the speaker's Panel of Chairmen.
23.
Eric Forth was in favour of capital punishment, but opposed corporal punishment in schools.
24.
Eric Forth opposed the government spending on AIDS treatment, saying that the disease was "largely self-inflicted".
25.
Eric Forth was a fan of Elvis Presley and treasurer of the all-party Music Appreciation Group, and a couple of Presley's songs were played at Forth's memorial service in October 2006.
26.
Eric Forth was married to Linda St Clair on 11 March 1967 and they had two daughters before their divorce in 1994; he remarried later that year to Carroll Goff, gaining a stepson.
27.
Eric Forth died from cancer at Charing Cross Hospital on 17 May 2006, at the age of 61.