Cecil Parkinson took which position from Jun 1983 to May 1987?
Cecil Parkinson Cecil Edward Parkinson , Baron Parkinson , ( 1 September 1931 – 22 January 2016 ) was a British Conservative politician and cabinet minister . A chartered accountant by training , he entered Parliament in November 1970 , and was appointed a minister in Margaret Thatchers first government in May 1979 . He successfully managed the Conservative Partys 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 . Parkinson subsequently served as Secretary of State for Energy , and later Secretary of State for Transport . He resigned that office in 1990 , on the same day that Thatcher resigned as Prime Minister . He was created Baron Parkinson in 1992 , and served in the House of Lords until his retirement in September 2015 . Early life . Cecil Parkinson was born at 4 Edward Street , Carnforth , Lancashire , the son of Sydney Parkinson ( 13 April 1906 – 15 July 1995 ) , a warehouseman for a corn dealer , later a railwayman , and his wife , Bridget , née Graham ( 29 January 1910 – 1991 ) , who was from a Northern Irish family from Tyrone and Fermanagh but their roots were in Scotland . He had a younger sister , Norma ( b . March 1933 ) . He was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School , a state-run day and boarding school for boys , from 1943 to 1950 after passing his eleven-plus from where he won a scholarship to Cambridge University , where he read English at Emmanuel College , later switching to read law . He won a Blue as an athlete , competing over 220 and 440 yards . While at university , Parkinson was a Labour supporter and for a time was a member of that party . He even canvassed for them at the 1950 and 1951 General Elections . He did National Service as an NCO in the Royal Air Force from 1950 to 1952 . After leaving university , Parkinson worked as a manager for the Metal Box Company , later becoming a consultant . He trained and qualified as a chartered accountant , and founded Parkinson-Hart Securities in 1961 . Member of Parliament . In the June 1970 general election Parkinson stood as Conservative candidate for Northampton , but was not elected . He was elected MP for Enfield West at a by-election in November 1970 , following the death of Iain Macleod . When that constituency was abolished for the February 1974 general election he was elected for the new South Hertfordshire constituency . After the 1979 general election he was made a junior trade minister . On 14 September 1981 , he was appointed Chairman of the Conservative Party as well as Paymaster-General with a seat in the cabinet ; he was given the added official title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in 1982 . Despite his relatively junior status , he was a member of the small War Cabinet that Margaret Thatcher set up to run the Falklands War . In government . He worked on the Conservative Partys 1983 election campaign , standing in the new Hertsmere constituency after South Hertfordshires abolition . As a result of his success on the campaign , Thatcher had intended to promote him to Foreign Secretary ; however , before the election he warned her that this would be unwise , for his former secretary , Sara Keays , was pregnant with his child . Although Thatcher initially remonstrated with him that Anthony Edens womanising had been no bar on his being Foreign Secretary , she instead appointed him Secretary of State for Trade and Industry . Parkinson was forced to resign on 14 October 1983 , after the news of Sara Keays pregnancy had become public knowledge . The child was born on New Years Eve , and christened 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 British media from making any reference to their daughter . Following the birth , Parkinson released a statement in which he wished the baby peace , privacy and a happy life . 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 the age of 18 at the end of 2001 , when the court order expired . It was stated in the press that Parkinson had never met his child and presumably had no intention of doing so . While he had assisted with Floras education and her financial upkeep , it was publicly pointed out that he had not even sent her a birthday card and that her mother assumed that Flora could not ever expect to receive one . At the time of the revelation of Parkinsons relationship with Sara Keays , he made much of what he described as the volume of letters in support that he received . Many in the Conservative Party attacked Keays . Edwina Currie said in October 1985 , whilst having an affair with John Major herself I feel very very sorry for Cecil and his family . Most of my thoughts on Sara Keays are unprintable . Perhaps the most polite thing to say is shes a right cow . 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 the July 1989 reshuffle . One of the highlights during his tenure of the latter job was announcing new main-line rail tunnels across London , called Crossrail . He resigned along with Margaret Thatcher when she was replaced by John Major , and stood down from the House of Commons at the 1992 general election . After the 1992 election , he was created Baron Parkinson , of Carnforth , in the County of Lancashire , on 29 June 1992 . That year , Parkinson also published his memoirs , in which he claimed that , with a determined campaign , Thatcher would have won the second ballot of the Conservative leadership election , when her Cabinet had warned her she would lose and thus persuaded her to stand down . Shadow Cabinet . Parkinson returned to front-line politics when he was made Conservative Party Chairman again , by William Hague , in June 1997 . He retired from this role in 1998 ; afterward he kept a low profile , although he was a vice-chairman of the Conservative Way Forward group . He was also the Honorary President of Conservative Friends of Poland . Personal life . Parkinson married Ann Mary Jarvis on 2 February 1957 . They had three daughters : Mary , Emma and Joanna . He was a supporter of Preston North End , and in November 1988 paid a tribute to Tom Finney on This Is Your Life . Parkinson was an active freemason . Death . Parkinson died from colorectal cancer at The London Clinic in Marylebone , London , on 22 January 2016 . He left nothing in his will for his daughter Flora : in April 2017 , it was reported that Sara Keays was preparing to sue Parkinsons estate to continue to gain support for her daughters 24-hour care , for regular payments had ceased a few months after Parkinson died . Parkinsons daughter , Mary , was found dead at her home in Wandsworth on 10 December 2017 , aged 57 . Police did not treat the death as suspicious , and it was later reported that she had committed suicide . Charitable works . He was one of the three Presidents of the UK-based charity Action on Addiction . In the media . Parkinsons affair with Sara Keays was a running joke in the satirical magazine Private Eye for over a decade ( and on the satirical TV programme Spitting Image for nearly as long ) , with the magazine seldom passing up an opportunity to portray Parkinson as having a voracious sexual appetite . He was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory ! Tory ! Tory !