Basil de Ferranti

Who was Basil de Ferranti?

Basil Reginald Vincent Ziani de Ferranti was a British businessman and a Conservative Party politician. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, and was the grandson of the electrical engineer and inventor Sebastian de Ferranti.

He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 1955 general election in the Labour-held Manchester Exchange constituency.

In 1958, he was elected to the House of Commons as Member of Parliament for Morecambe and Lonsdale at a by-election, following the elevation to the peerage of the constituency's Conservative MP, Ian Fraser.

He held the seat at the 1959 general election, but stood down from Parliament at the 1964 election. He had held ministerial office only briefly, as Parliamentary Secretary for Aviation from July to October 1962.

He later became a member and chairman of the European Economic and Social Committee. He subsequently became a Member of the European Parliament, and a Vice President from 1979 to 1982. He represented the Hampshire West constituency from 1979 to 1984, and Hampshire Central from 1984 until his death.