Cecil Parkinson
| Cecil Parkinson link (Politician) | |
|---|---|
| File:Lord Parkinson 2015.png | |
| Born | 1 September 1931 Carnforth, United Kingdom |
| Died | 22 January 2016 |
| Nationality | UK |
| Alma mater | Emmanuel College (Cambridge) |
| Children | 4 |
| Spouse | Anne Jarvis |
| Party | Conservative |
British Conservative politician and cabinet minister. Tagged for high positions, but forced to resign after revelations that his former secretary was pregnant with his child. | |
Cecil Edward Parkinson, Baron Parkinson was a British Conservative politician and cabinet minister. He successfully managed the Conservative Party's 1983 election campaign, and was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but was forced to resign after revelations that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was pregnant with his child, whom she later bore and named Flora Keays.[1]
He attended the 1989 Bilderberg conference, before becoming Secretary of State for Transport.
Background
Cecil Parkinson was a chartered accountant by training.
Career
After four years on the back benches, he was appointed Secretary of State for Energy in 1987 (having been tipped as a potential Chancellor of the Exchequer), and for Transport in July 1989, 7 months after of the downing of Pan Am Flight 103.
Resignation
Parkinson was forced to resign on 14 October 1983 after it was revealed that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was carrying his child, Flora Keays. Subsequently, as a result of a dispute over child maintenance payments, Parkinson (with Keays' initial consent) was able to gain an injunction in 1993 forbidding the UK commercially-controlled media from making any reference to their daughter. Flora Keays has learning difficulties and Asperger syndrome and also underwent an operation to remove a brain tumour when she was four, although it is unknown if this either caused or complicated her condition. This court order was the subject of some controversy until Flora Keays reached her majority at the end of 2001, when the court order expired. Upon Flora turning 18, it was noted in the press that Parkinson had never met his child and presumably had no intention of doing so. While he had contributed money to Flora's education and upkeep, it was noted pointed out that he had not even sent her a birthday card and that her Sara Keays assumed that Flora would never receive one.[2]