Geoffrey Rippon

(Aubrey) Geoffrey Frederick Rippon, Baron Rippon of Hexham, PC, (28 May 1924 - 28 January 1997) was a British Conservative politician. He was Chairman of the European-Atlantic Group.

Educated at King's College, Taunton, and Brasenose College, Oxford where he was president of the University Conservative Association, he was called to the Bar in 1948. He was Mayor of Surbiton 1951-52 and a member of the London County Council from 1952. After unsuccessfully contesting the seat of Shoreditch and Finsbury in both 1950 and 1951, he became MP for Norwich South in 1955. In 1964 he was defeated, but moved to the constituency of Hexham in Northumberland at the 1966 general election and remained MP there until retiring in 1987.

In 1970 he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under Edward Heath, and being in favour of the Common Market was given the responsibility of negotiating Britain's entry into it. In 1972 he moved to become Secretary of State for the Environment.

Rippon was at one time a prominent member of the Conservative Monday Club, for whom he authored a booklet entitled "Right Angle", and was guest-of-honour at their Annual Dinner in 1970. The Club was, however, divided on the EEC (European Community) issue, and at their conference in October 1971 members moved and carried a resolution opposing Britain's entry.

From 1979 to 1982, Rippon was President of the European Documentation and Information Centre (CEDI).

He was created a life peer in 1987, as Baron Rippon of Hexham, of Hesleyside in the County of Northumberland.

References

* Copping, Robert, "The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade", (Foreword by George Pole), Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, April 1972, (P/B).