36 Facts About Leon Brittan

Leon Brittan was born in London, the son of Rebecca and Joseph Brittan, a doctor.

Leon Brittan's parents were Lithuanian Jews who had migrated to Britain before the Second World War.

Leon Brittan then studied at Yale University on a Henry Fellowship.

Leon Brittan was then promoted to become Chief Secretary to the Treasury, becoming the youngest member of the Cabinet.

Leon Brittan warned cabinet colleagues that spending on social security, health and education would have to be cut "whether they like it or not".

At the 1983 election, Leon Brittan was elected MP for Richmond.

Leon Brittan accused them of organising violence by flying pickets, whom he described as "thugs".

In 1984, after the murder of Yvonne Fletcher, a police officer, during a protest outside the Libyan embassy in London, Leon Brittan headed the government's crisis committee as both Thatcher and the Foreign Secretary, Sir Geoffrey Howe, were away at the time.

In September 1986, Leon Brittan was cleared by a High Court Judge of acting unlawfully when, as Home Secretary, he gave MI5 permission to tap the telephone of a leader of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

In September 1985, Leon Brittan was moved to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.

The reason for his demotion, according to Jonathan Aitken, was that the prime minister Margaret Thatcher felt that Leon Brittan was "not getting the message across on television".

Leon Brittan had been criticised as a poor communicator and for his role in the suppression of a BBC television programme in the Real Lives series on The Troubles in Northern Ireland, At the Edge of the Union.

Leon Brittan stated that transmission of the programme would be against the national interest and in August 1985 he wrote to the BBC chairman, Stuart Young, asking for the broadcast to be cancelled.

Leon Brittan resigned as Trade and Industry Secretary in January 1986 over the Westland affair.

Leon Brittan had authorised the leaking of a letter from the Solicitor General that had accused Michael Heseltine of inaccuracies in his campaign for Westland to be rescued by a consortium of European investors.

In October 1986, in a House of Commons debate, Leon Brittan made a bitter attack on Michael Heseltine, accusing him of "thwarting the Government at every turn" in its handling of the Westland affair.

Leon Brittan said that Government decisions "should have the support of all its members and should not be undermined from within".

In 1989, Leon Brittan revealed in a Channel 4 programme that two senior Downing Street officials, Bernard Ingham and Charles Powell, had approved the leaking of the letter from the Solicitor General.

Leon Brittan's claim led to calls from some Labour MPs for a new inquiry into the Westland affair.

Leon Brittan was knighted in the 1989 New Years Honours List.

Leon Brittan was made European Commissioner for Competition at the European Commission early in 1989, resigning as an MP to take the position.

Leon Brittan accepted the post reluctantly, as it meant giving up his British parliamentary ambitions.

Leon Brittan resigned with the rest of the Santer Commission in 1999 amid accusations of fraud against Jacques Santer and Edith Cresson.

Leon Brittan was created a life peer on 9 February 2000.

Leon Brittan was vice-chairman of UBS AG Investment Bank, non-executive director of Unilever and member of the international advisory committee for Total.

Prime Minister David Cameron said that Leon Brittan had "unrivalled experience" for the job, which was scheduled to last for six months.

Leon Brittan died at his London home in Pimlico on 21 January 2015, aged 75; he had been ill with cancer for some time.

In 1984, in his capacity as Home Secretary, Leon Brittan was handed a 40-page dossier by Geoffrey Dickens MP which detailed alleged paedophile activity in the 1980s, including, according to Dickens, allegations concerning "people in positions of power, influence and responsibility".

Leon Brittan denied any knowledge of the matter in an e-mail to a Channel 4 News reporter in 2013, and later replied that he had no recollection of it to a query from The Independent newspaper.

Leon Brittan later declared in 2014 that Dickens had met him at the Home Office and that he had written to Dickens on 20 March 1984, explaining what had been done about the files.

Leon Brittan gave examples of the allegations in the dossier, including a woman protesting that her 16-year-old son had become homosexual after working in Buckingham Palace kitchens and a civil servant advocating persons caught by Customs and Excise importing child pornography should be referred to the police.

An initial review by Home Office civil servant Mark Sedwill in 2013 concluded that copies of Dickens's material had "not been retained" but that Leon Brittan had acted appropriately in dealing with the allegations.

In October 2014, the Labour MP Jimmy Hood used parliamentary privilege to refer to claims that Leon Brittan had been linked to child abuse.

Leon Brittan was created a life peer by the Queen on the advice of Conservative Party leader William Hague.

Leon Brittan took the title Baron Brittan of Spennithorne, of Spennithorne in the County of North Yorkshire on 9 February 2000.

Leon Brittan sat with the Conservative Party benches in the House of Lords.