1. Sir Edward MacMillan Taylor, known as Teddy Taylor, was a British Conservative Party politician who was a Member of Parliament for forty years, from 1964 to 1979 for Glasgow Cathcart and from 1980 to 2005 for Southend East.
26 Facts About Teddy Taylor
1. 2.
Teddy Taylor professed Euroscepticism all his life and was a leading member and vice-president of the Conservative Monday Club.
3.
Teddy Taylor fought Glasgow Springburn at the 1959 general election, but he lost to Labour's John Forman.
4.
Teddy Taylor first entered Parliament in the 1964 election as MP for Glasgow Cathcart, following John Henderson's retirement.
5.
Teddy Taylor resigned from this position in July 1971 in protest at the UK joining the European Economic Community, which Heath enthusiastically supported.
6.
Teddy Taylor called the Harold Wilson-led Labour government "thoroughly cowardly and hypocritical over the Social Contract" and asked the government spokesman in the House of Commons whether it was "just a sick joke".
7.
Teddy Taylor was politically close to Margaret Thatcher and served in her shadow cabinet, as Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland.
8.
Teddy Taylor was expected to become Thatcher's Secretary of State for Scotland if he had held his seat at the 1979 election.
9.
Teddy Taylor was a leading and early young member of the old Conservative Monday Club, and was on the platform at the Club's very successful rally at the Scottish Conservative Party's annual conference at Perth on 17 May 1968.
10.
Teddy Taylor was first co-opted onto the Club's Executive Council on 9 September 1968.
11.
Teddy Taylor is listed in a Club circular as one of its members standing for Parliament in the General Election on 9 June 1983, for Southend East, and was elected deputy Chairman of the Club on 23 June that year.
12.
Teddy Taylor consistently opposed the EEC and the EU and campaigned for the UK to leave.
13.
Teddy Taylor was a leading campaigner against joining the euro and had campaigned against metrication.
14.
Teddy Taylor sought leave to introduce a bill in parliament in October 1974 to restore capital punishment.
15.
Teddy Taylor was guest-of-honour at the South East Essex Monday Club's Annual Dinner on 4 July 1997.
16.
At the 1979 election, Scotland bucked the British trend by showing a slight swing from Conservative to Labour, and Teddy Taylor lost his seat, the only Conservative MP at that election to do so.
17.
Teddy Taylor had been widely expected to become the Secretary of State for Scotland.
18.
Teddy Taylor re-entered Parliament at a 1980 by-election for Southend East following the death of Stephen McAdden and, from the 1997 general election, represented Rochford and Southend East.
19.
Teddy Taylor did not serve in government after his return but received a knighthood in 1991.
20.
Teddy Taylor was a favourite to win but pulled out of the election at the last minute to contest the parliamentary seat.
21.
Teddy Taylor was interviewed in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.
22.
Teddy Taylor campaigned for a 'leave' vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.
23.
In 1996 the US industrial metal band Ministry released the album Filth Pig, which derives its name from Teddy Taylor describing the band's singer Al Jourgensen as a "filthy pig" in the Houses of Parliament.
24.
In 1970, Teddy Taylor married Sheila Duncan, and they had three children.
25.
Teddy Taylor's health declined at the end of his life due to Alzheimer's disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
26.
Teddy Taylor died from complications of pneumonia and septicaemia at Southend University Hospital on 20 September 2017, at the age of 80.