Peter Brooke

Peter Leonard Brooke, Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, CH, PC (born 3 March 1934), is a British politician, a former Conservative Cabinet member, and former Member of Parliament for the Cities of London and Westminster.

He is the son of Henry Brooke, Baron Brooke of Cumnor, a former Home Secretary and Barbara Brooke, Baroness Brooke of Ystradfellte. He was educated at Marlborough College and Balliol College, Oxford (where he was President of the Oxford Union), and Harvard Business School. After leaving university he worked as a headhunter and was Chairman of Spencer Stuart.

He was elected as Conservative MP for the City of London and Westminster in 1977. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1988. He was made Chairman of the Conservative Party in 1987, and was made Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in 1989. He remained in this position until the reshuffle after the 1992 UK general election. He caused controversy when he appeared on The Late Late Show the day after an IRA bombing and sang the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine".

After the 1992 general election he stood down and became a backbench MP, but later that year became Secretary of State for National Heritage until 1994. During his time as National Heritage Secretary he oversaw the re-building of Windsor Castle when it burned down to the dismay of the Queen; which later provoked both her and The Prince of Wales to pay tax following the controversy and anger surrounding the financing for the re-building of the Castle from the general public.

He stepped down as an MP at the 2001 general election and was made a life peer as Baron Brooke of Sutton Mandeville, of Sutton Mandeville in the County of Wiltshire in October 2001. He is Chairman of the Association of Conservative Peers. He was appointed Companion of Honour, as his father had been, in 1992.