The MP for Worcester for more than 30 years has died after a long battle with cancer
The former Conservative cabinet minister Peter Walker, who was MP for Worcester for more than 30 years, has died after a long battle with cancer.
The 78-year-old peer, who was a close ally of Edward Heath and went on to serve in Margaret Thatcher's government, died early today at St Richard's hospice, Worcester, his family said.
He was, they said, "a true one nation Conservative" and a passionate supporter of the hospice movement for which he had campaigned strongly.
Walker was the main founder of the Tory Reform Group between his two spells in cabinet and went on to be one of the key "wets" of the Thatcher years, showing a remarkable gift for political survival.
He had been elected to parliament in 1961 after being the youngest national chairman of the Young Conservatives, and was a founder of Slater Walker, a bank that was later to be involved in one of the worst financial crises of the 1970s.
Under Heath, he was successively minister of housing and local government, the first environment secretary in the world and then trade and industry secretary.
