Cecil Parkinson

Who is Cecil Parkinson?

Cecil Parkinson, Baron Parkinson, PC, is a British Conservative politician and former Cabinet Minister.

A Chartered Accountant by training, he entered Parliament in 1970 and was appointed a minister in Margaret Thatcher’s first government in 1979. He successfully managed the Conservative Party's 1983 election campaign, and was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but was forced to resign after revelations that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was pregnant with his child.

Parkinson subsequently served as Secretary of State for Energy, and later Transport. He resigned that office in 1990, on the same day that Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister. He was created Baron Parkinson of Carnforth in 1992.