Cecil Parkinson: the minister who strayed from the path to power

Parkinson’s rise up the Conservative ranks to become trade secretary was only as spectacular as his fall a few months later

For the last 30 years of his life – and probably now also in his death – it has been Cecil Parkinson’s fate to be remembered for only one thing. The revelation at the climax of the Conservative conference in 1983 that Parkinson, married and with three daughters, had fathered a daughter with his former secretary, Sara Keays, forced his resignation as Margaret Thatcher’s trade secretary. Not surprisingly, it also nearly wrecked his marriage. But there was more to Cecil Parkinson than his fall.

His resignation destroyed the career of a man who might otherwise have been prime minister. He returned to his wife, Anne, and turned his back on Keays and their daughter, Flora, who was born three months later in January 1984. But Parkinson had flown too near to the sun to ever recover from such a very public fall. Though he returned to government in 1987 and was briefly party chairman for a second time under William Hague, after the 1997 election defeat, his days at the top of British politics were over.

Related: Former Tory minister Cecil Parkinson dies aged 84

Related: Lord Parkinson obituary

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