14 Facts About Ivor Stanbrook

Ivor Robert Stanbrook was a British Conservative party politician and barrister.

Ivor Stanbrook represented Orpington as its Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1992.

Ivor Stanbrook was educated at Willesden High School, leaving at age 15, and became a legal assistant at Wembley Council, while taking a part-time degree in economics and law at Birkbeck College, University of London.

Ivor Stanbrook completed postgraduate study at Pembroke College, Oxford then left for Nigeria in 1950 where he worked for ten years in the Colonial Service as District Officer in various regions of Northern and Western Nigeria, including Ilorin, Western Region.

Ivor Stanbrook was a member of the 92 Group and was initially regarded as being on the right in the Conservative Party, but it is probably fairer to categorise him as a traditionalist, and the positions he took were not altogether predictable.

Ivor Stanbrook was a leading member of the Conservative backbench committees on Home Affairs and Northern Ireland and chaired the Conservative backbench Constitutional Committee.

Ivor Stanbrook backed the attempt of the Eminent Persons Group to end apartheid and subsequently urged that sanctions should be strengthened, arguing that the South Africans had no intention of changing and that they could only be induced to do so by pressure, and backed their continuance in 1990.

Ivor Stanbrook had supported entry into the EEC in 1971 and he remained a passionate European.

Ivor Stanbrook was critical of the use of the whips against Sir Anthony Meyer's leadership challenge and in March 1990 proclaimed that Michael Heseltine was the best alternative to Thatcher: he had "dynamism, style and a softer image".

Ivor Stanbrook backed Heseltine's leadership challenge in November 1990 and continued to support him in the second ballot.

Ivor Stanbrook was appalled by the thought that Europe had food surpluses while parts of Africa were wracked by famine.

Ivor Stanbrook chaired the Constitutional Committee from 1984 until he stood down from Parliament and served as chairman of the Nigerian, Zambian and Zimbabwean parliamentary groups.

Ivor Stanbrook was married to Joan from 1946 until her death in 2000.

Ivor Stanbrook gave up the legal profession in 1990 and, after his retirement from Parliament, concentrated on studying for a doctorate from the University of East Anglia which he obtained in 1995.