TRIBUTES to the former MP for Leominster, Peter Temple-Morris, have been led by the barrister and politician’s old friend, Speaker of the House of Lords, Norman Fowler.

A Labour peer for 17 years, Baron Temple-Morris was elected to the North Herefordshire constituency in 1974 and retained the seat until retirement at the 2001 General Election, despite a spectacular defection to Labour in 1998.

The former Conservative Cabinet minister, Lord Fowler paid tribute to his “very good friend” at the start of proceedings in the Lords.

He offered his condolences to the peer’s family, his wife Tahere, children Edward, David, Suzanna and Tina and their five grandchildren.

A committed pro-European, the former MP became disillusioned with the Tory party’ in the 1990s, admitting he was “entirely out of sympathy” with Margaret Thatcher.

In his memoirs, Across the Floor: A Life in Dissenting Politics published in 2016, he wrote: “She was not my type, nor did she ever share my politics.”

He went on to say: “I could not stand being lectured and hectored by someone who would not let you get a word in edgeways.”

Having come through turbulent times during a 27-year career in the House of Commons, he described the Brexiteers’ win in 2015 as “disastrous”.

Indeed, the dedicated MP had been compelled to cross the floor in 1998 due to what he saw as the Tory party’s shift to become “more nationalistic and less European in sympathy” under Mrs Thatcher.

He feared for the future for farmers in Herefordshire following the referendum vote.

“It’s a disastrous result, it’s gone completely the wrong way,” he said at the time.

“We’ve isolated ourselves from Europe and the financial market. There’s no way back immediately, though we must remain close to Europe while not being part of it.”

Born in Cardiff, the son of former MP Sir Owen Temple-Morris, he was educated at Malvern College and went to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, where he met his wife.

Because of her family’s high status in Iran – Tahere’s uncle was Prime Minister – the family fled the country during the 1979 Iranian revolution.

“My father-in-law escaped across the Turkish mountains on a donkey,” Baron Temple-Morris explained.

Immediately after the Tory party conference that year, he had to jump on the first available plane to meet Tahere’s father in Istanbul. The family lived in exile in Britain as political refugees.

He served for many years on British-Iranian groups, and also became actively involved in the Northern Ireland peace process. He was co-chairman of the British-Irish inter-parliamentary body during the 1990s.

Former European Parliament representative for Herefordshire, David Hallam said Peter was seen as a “first-class constituency MP”.

He was “very helpful in moving the mandarins in Whitehall while I pushed the Commission in Brussels”, said Mr Hallam. “We got to know each other especially well during the BSE.”

He continued: “He was always prepared to take up cases on behalf of some of the poorest people in the county. He was, at that point, very much an old-fashioned ‘one nation Tory’.

Mr Hallam revealed how he was “gobsmacked” when the MP called a meeting to tell him about his planned defection.

“I was astonished to get a telephone call from an official at 10 Downing Street on behalf of Prime Minister Tony Blair, who wanted me to make it clear that Temple-Morris would eventually be welcomed into the Labour Party, but also wanted to stress that there was absolutely no chance he would be elevated to the House of Lords.”

Mr Hallam said he was “impressed” that the MP did not want to hurt members of the Leominster Conservative Association.

His funeral is to be private, though a memorial service will be held later. Donations can be given to Royal Trinity Hospice at www.royaltrinityhospice.london