Cecil Parkinson cuts lovechild with Asperger's out of his will Cecil Parkinson cuts lovechild with Asperger's out of his will Cecil Parkinson had once been tipped as a Conservative Party leader Credit: Rex Featrues Camilla Turner 27 April 2016 • 9:40am Cecil Parkinson, the former cabinet minister, left nothing in his will to the lovechild he fathered with his secretary, it has emerged. The late Tory grandee, who was a close ally of Margaret Thatcher, had a daughter with his mistress Sara Keays in 1983 then fought a bitter court battle to keep her existence a secret. Sara Keays pictured with her daughter Flora Credit: Rex Features Parkinson, who died in January aged 84, had once been tipped as a Conservative Party leader but was forced to resign from the front bench after the affair and Flora's birth became public knowledge. He secured a gagging order which stopped the Press from reporting on his illegitimate child, who has Asperger’s syndrome, until she turned 18. Now it has emerged that he left his fortune to his wife Ann and their three daughters Mary, Emma and Joanna, cutting out lovechild Flora entirely.

The politician and former Conservative Party chairman wrote in his will: “Having made separate provision for my daughter Flora Keays I make no provision for her under this my will,” according to The Sun. It is unclear what the “separate provision” entails, but it is thought to be a reference to the money Parkinson paid his former secretary for their daughter's upbringing. He lived in a listed mansion in Hertfordshire which is now on the market £2million, with the proceeds set to go to his wife. The Tory politician, who was created Baron Parkinson after resigning from politics, and served in the House of Lords, had extensive business interests and amassed millions of pounds over his lifetime. He served as a director of more than a dozen companies and chaired the web start-up Planet Online which was sold for £85million in 1998. “Having made separate provision for my daughter Flora Keays I make no provision for her under this my will” Cecil Parkinson's will However, none of his fortune will go to Flora, 32, who was left with severe health problems after undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour at the age of four, and was later diagnosed with Asperger's.

When the court order was lifted in 2002, she revealed that Parkinson had never inquired after her wellbeing or even sent her a birthday card, although he claimed to have spent £500,000 supporting her. Parkinson had been widely seen as the architect of Thatcher's 1983 election victory, and was rewarded with an appointment as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. However, he was forced to resign a few months later when news of his affair with Ms Keays became public. The MP was able to return to the front benches in 1987 as Energy Secretary and then transport Secretary, later moving to the House of Lords and becoming a chairman of the Tory party. From 1993 to 2001, it was illegal for the media to make any reference to Flora's existence because of a court order sought by Parkinson.

Follow Telegraph News News latest 18 Jan 2017, 10:10pm BBC - Radio 4 - Woman's Hour -Sara Keays Woman's Hour Listen to this item The revelation that a Conservative cabinet minister, Cecil Parkinson, had fathered a child by his secretary Sara Keays was one of the great political scandals of the 1980s. But whilst Cecil, now Lord, Parkinson was allowed to rebuild his political career after a spell in purdah, his daughter Flora, who has learning difficulties, was forced to live a life shrouded in secrecy. A series of court orders prevented any public discussion of Flora's life - and the terms of the injunctions were so strict that she wasn't even allowed to appear in school photographs or perform in school plays. But now that Flora has turned 18 the court orders no longer apply so Flora and her mother have decided to tell their story to a national newspaper and to Channel 4. Sara Keays talks to Jenni about why she's decided to publicise their story.

Cecil Parkinson did not believe he was father of secretary's daughter writes EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE | Daily Mail Online comments Cecil Parkinson, who has died at 84, never believed he was the father of Flora, the daughter of his secretary, Sara Keays, a friend of the former Tory statesman tells me, adding: 'He suspected her real father was Marcus Fox MP, who had been chairman of the Tories' 1922 Committee.' Private Eye suggested, in 1983, that Fox, who died in 2002, had been 'discussing Uganda' (its euphemism for extra-marital sex) with Ms Keays. She sued them for libel but the case appears to have been settled out of court.

Margaret Thatcher, unaware of the Eye's joke name for canoodling, famously dismissed the story, saying: 'I know for a fact that Marcus has never been to Africa.' Cecil Parkinson (pictured in the 1980s), who has died at 84, never believed he was the father of Flora, the daughter of his secretary, Sara Keays Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, 67, is publishing his Little Book of Tweets, which feature, we're told, his 'selfies, rubber ducks and teddy bears.' The apparent intention is to present a cuddly new image of Adams, once suspected of being the IRA's chief. So the tweets don't mention Belfast housewife and mother of ten Jean McConville, 37, abducted by the IRA in 1972. After her body was found on a County Louth beach in 2003, Adams denied all knowledge of her murder when questioned by police.

Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams (pictured), 67, is publishing his Little Book of Tweets George Clooney has been talking about working with revered film makers Joel and Ethan Coen, who cast him as an idiotic chain gang convict Ulysses Everett McGill in 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?'. 'I've now done four massive idiots for them,' Clooney boasts. The Coens don't sound too cerebral themselves. The actor has been known to do an impression of the pair laughing – like geese honking. George Clooney has been talking about working with revered film makers Joel and Ethan Coen, who cast him as an idiotic chain gang convict Ulysses Everett McGill in Oh Brother Where Art Thou? (pictured) Tony Blair performed on a leading French breakfast show, Europe 1, yesterday, where his anti-Brexit message was much appreciated. So was his French. A listener emailed to say: 'Monsieur Blair's French is even nicer than Jane Birkin's' – a reference to the English pop singer, now 69, who performed the sexy song Je t'aime with lover Serge Gainsbourg.

Some think Blair yodelling his own version of Je t'aime with French admirers improves his prospects of becoming European Union president. Tony Blair (pictured) performed on a leading French breakfast show, Europe 1, yesterday, where his anti-Brexit message was much appreciated Reflecting on setbacks during his 120-film career, Sir Michael Caine, 82, says in an interview: 'I went to the top and then I went down to the bottom… every actor probably does. I screwed up and took a couple of scripts that weren't that great.' One was the widely-dismissed 1987 sequel, Jaws: The Revenge, of which he once remarked: 'I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible… however, I have seen the house that it built, and it's terrific.' Reflecting on setbacks during his 120-film career, Sir Michael Caine (pictured), 82, says in an interview: 'I went to the top and then I went down to the bottom Can David Cameron call the European referendum for June 23, as suggested?

This would mean his fight for the UK to remain in a 'reformed' EU would take place during official celebrations of the Queen's 90th birthday, Trooping the Colour, Garter Day and Royal Ascot. 'The most patriotic ten days in the calendar,' observes a royal source dryly. If David Cameron calls the European referendum for June 23 as suggested, it would mean his fight for the UK to remain in a 'reformed' EU would take place during official celebrations of the Queen's 90th birthday Cecil Parkinson dead at 84: Former Tory cabinet minister dies of cancer - Mirror Online News Cecil Parkinson dead at 84: Former Tory cabinet minister dies of cancer A close friend of Margaret Thatcher, Lord Parkinson's legacy was overshadowed by an affair with his one-time secretary Sara Keays Share Death: Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with Cecil Parkinson (Photo: PA) Share Get politics updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email Ex-Tory cabinet minister and Thatcher favourite Cecil Parkinson has died after a long battle with cancer, his family announced today.

Lord Parkinson was twice Tory Party chairman, pursued a Cabinet-rank political career and was a key part of Margaret Thatcher's government. But his career was overshadowed by his affair with Sara Keays, his one-time secretary. Margaret Thatcher viewed the trade and industry secretary as a friend and tipped him as a possible successor before he was forced to quit during the Tory conference in 1983. Designed as a celebration of the election triumph, the bash in Blackpool was dominated by the affair and led to Lord Parkinson holding a brief meeting to confirm his departure in Mrs Thatcher's hotel suite at 2.15am. She told the ex-minister she was "saddened beyond words at the loss of your great contribution to the work of government and by the tragic circumstances in which it came about" in a letter after he resigned. View gallery She added: "I need not tell you how deeply Denis and I have felt for you and Ann and your family during this difficult time". Miss Keays, who bore Mr Parkinson's daughter, Flora, repeatedly claimed that he had reneged on a promise to leave his own wife and marry her.

In her book, A Question Of Judgment, she claimed that Mr Parkinson had "begged" her to have an abortion and that he had "haggled over every pound" of support. But Lord Parkinson himself repeatedly said he had voluntarily made more than adequate provision, and after Flora underwent an operation for a brain tumour thought to cause epilepsy in 1988, his maintenance for the child was increased from £3,000 a year to £10,000. Mrs Thatcher had to let the future peer go because his affair ran against his crusade for family values. But he remained with his wife and as one of Mrs Thatcher's most loyal allies, returning to government as energy secretary in 1987. He stepped down after she was ousted as Tory leader - but that was far from the end of his career. Friendship: Margaret Thatcher's letter to Cecil Parkinson after his resignation in 1983 (Photo: Margaret Thatcher Foundation) He briefly made a comeback as Conservative Party chairman in a surprise move by then-leader William Hague after the Tories' election hammering in 1997.

It was the second time he had held the post, and at the time Lord Parkinson was almost 66. Chancellor George Osborne led tributes today to the ex-minister, tweeting: "Sad to hear of death of Cecil Parkinson. "I worked with him when he was Party Chairman in 1997-8 - he was there in our hour of greatest need." Lord Hague added: "Very sad to hear about the death of my friend Cecil Parkinson. An exceptional talent and an extraordinarily nice man to work with." Warm tributes: Politicians paid tribute today to Lord Parkinson (Photo: PA) Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands added: "A giant of a Conservative has departed. Condolences to the Parkinson family. RIP." Tory chairman Lord Feldman said: “Lord Parkinson made an enormous contribution to the Conservative Party and to public life. "On a personal note, he always took the time to offer me his wise counsel on the role of Party Chairman. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this very sad time.” And broadcaster Andrew Neil wrote: "Sad to learn of death of Cecil Parkinson. Seminal ally for Thatcher. Great source of stories. Always so polite. And fun.

Grammar schoolboy." Cecil Edward Parkinson, the son of a railway worker, was born on September 1, 1931. He won a scholarship to Royal Lancaster Grammar School and studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, before becoming a chartered accountant and businessman. He entered Parliament in the 1970 Enfield West by-election and rose to assistant whip for Edward Heath four years later. Mrs Thatcher appointed him minister for trade on her victory in 1979 and he later became secretary of state for trade and industry. He quit in disgrace in 1983 but returned in 1987, serving as energy secretary and transport secretary before resigning again in 1990. (Photo: PA) Lord Parkinson was made a Life Peer in 1992, and continued to fight the causes he believed in from the House of Lords, in particular his gnawing doubts about the European Union and Britain's part in it. Lord Parkinson's death was confirmed by a family spokesman today. The spokesman added: "There will be a private family funeral. The family requests that their privacy be respected in this matter.

Details about a memorial service will be announced later." Like us on Facebook Downfall of Margaret Thatcher's number one guy Cecil Parkinson | UK | News | Daily Express Downfall of Margaret Thatcher's number one guy Cecil Parkinson HE WAS the golden boy of the Conservative Party in the early Eighties. 01:42, Tue, Oct 8, 2013 Power: Mrs Thatcher and Cecil hail 1983's election victory [ALAMY] A favourite of prime minister Margaret Thatcher, Cecil Parkinson had as Tory chairman masterminded the landslide election victory over Labour in 1983. Handsome, charming and highly ambitious, he was the man who - as newly released private papers suggest - Mrs Thatcher wanted to anoint as her successor. However, the moment of his greatest triumph would also prove to be the start of his downfall. On the evening of election day in June 1983, Parkinson told Mrs Thatcher that he had been having an extra-marital affair with his former secretary Sara Keays. The then PM had planned to promote him to the Foreign Office - and even after his bombshell confession, she did not at once rule out the promotion.

"I did not immediately decide that it was an insuperable obstacle to his becoming foreign secretary," she later wrote. That night Parkinson and Mrs Thatcher waved to jubilant crowds outside the Conservative Party headquarters (at the time in London's Smith Square) as the Tories were returned with a greatly increased majority. However, the following day, shortly before Parkinson was due for lunch at No 10, the PM received a letter from Sara Keays's father, informing her that Keays was pregnant with Parkinson's child. "When Cecil arrived I showed him the letter," Mrs Thatcher recorded. "It must have been one of the worst moments of his life." Promoting Parkinson to foreign secretary was now out of the question but Mrs Thatcher instead made her favourite the secretary of state for trade and industry. She wrote him a letter in which she made no mention of his affair, saying: "Throughout the past two years you have given me invaluable advice and I want to thank you most warmly for your reassurance, wise counsel and encouragement." Parkinson publicly admitted the affair. He said Keays was expecting his child but that he would be staying with his wife. He also said he would make financial arrangements for the baby.

It seemed that the minister would be able to ride out the storm and keep his job. However, during the week of the party conference Keays gave an interview to a national newspaper to "put the record straight" and challenged his version of events. She revealed that he had twice proposed to her, including once before she was pregnant, but that each time changed his mind. "My baby was conceived in a longstanding, loving relationship which I allowed to continue because I believed in our eventual marriage," she said. Parkinson's position as a minister was untenable. His image was now discredited as that of someone who had cheated on his wife and let down his mistress too. Despite this, Mrs Thatcher was still loath to see him go. On the day that Keays's interview was published, Parkinson handed in his resignation, to her great sorrow. "I am saddened beyond words both by the loss of your contribution as a member of the Government and by the tragic circumstances in which that loss has come about," she wrote to him. Although Parkinson would eventually return to the Cabinet four years later, the scandal destroyed any hopes he - or Mrs Thatcher - might have had of him becoming prime minister.

It was a big blow to her to lose a man whom she regarded as an ideological soulmate and trusted ally. Cecil Parkinson's background was not one usually associated with Tory high-fliers. The son of a Lancashire railwayman, he was educated at a state grammar school. He won a scholarship to Cambridge University but was a Labour supporter in his student days. He trained and qualified as a chartered accountant and was elected to Parliament in November 1970. In 1957 he had married Anne Jarvis. But shortly after beginning his political career he began a clandestine affair with his secretary, 16 years his junior, which was to last for 12 years. When the Conservatives returned to power in 1979, his rise was meteoric. At first a junior minister, he was appointed party chairman in 1981. Mistress Sara Keays in 1984 [GETTY] My baby was conceived in a longstanding, loving relationship which I allowed to continue because I believed in our eventual marriage Sara Keays For Mrs Thatcher, Parkinson ticked all the right boxes. He shared her right-wing views on domestic and economic policy.

Like her, he was not from an upper-class background. She admired how efficient he was as a minister and his work as chairman. She was also susceptible to his charm. Who's to say that his good looks did not play their part too? Parkinson was a crushed man in October 1983 but if he thought that his resignation would mark the end of the scandal, he was mistaken. Sara Keays gave birth to his daughter on New Year's Eve but the child, Flora, was later diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and at the age of four she had an operation to remove a brain tumour. Keays accused Parkinson's friends in the Conservative Party of smear campaigns against her and launched law suits for libel. In 1993, Parkinson, now a member of the Lords, obtained a court injunction banning anyone from speaking publicly about Flora or revealing her identity until she was 18. Keays took her battle to have the injunction lifted to the European Court of Human Rights but couldn't get it overturned. When the injunction expired, Flora gave a newspaper interview in which she expressed her sadness at her father's lack of interest in her.

"If he loved me, he would want to see me and be in my everyday life. I think my father has behaved very badly towards me," she said. It was revealed that although Parkinson had paid for his child's education and upkeep, he had never sent her a birthday card, not even on her 18th. Sara Keays said that the only promise Parkinson had kept to her was his pledge not to see his own child. Three decades on from the biggest sex scandal to hit British politics since the Profumo Affair of 1963, it is clear just how much the revelations about his private life cost Cecil Parkinson. "It's only speculative that she [Mrs Thatcher] considered him to be her successor but it would appear that she was very serious about him indeed," says Chris Collins, a historian from the Margaret Thatcher Foundation, who has overseen the release of the latest documents from the archive of the late PM's private papers kept at Churchill College, Cambridge. The view that Parkinson was Thatcher's anointed successor was held by others too. In his Diaries the late Tory minister Alan Clark recorded meeting Parkinson in December 1983. "I said it was a disaster, the whole thing. He would have been prime minister.

Yes, he admitted, all this he knew privately. He was the Lady's own choice. She had been grooming him, introducing him to the royals, especially the Prince of Wales. The switch could have happened when the time was ripe, certainly no later than her 10th anniversary." Parkinson was not the first, or indeed the last politician to have their career damaged by a sex scandal but in his case his indiscretions probably denied him the biggest job of all in British politics. Related articles The only promise Cecil Parkinson ever kept - never to see his daughter - Telegraph Conservative The only promise Cecil Parkinson ever kept - never to see his daughter Flora Keays, whose illegitimate birth forced her father to resign as Trade Secretary, has grown up in a secret world as a result of the court order that he obtained. But all that changed shen she became 18 on New Year's Eve Former Tory party chairman Cecil Parkinson and his wife Ann arrive at a Conservative Ball in London in 2000 Photo: PA 3:59PM GMT 06 Jan 2002 She was, until six days ago, the young woman who did not exist.

Excised from school photographs, barred from class theatrical productions and left off the list of scholastic achievements displayed on her college noticeboard, Flora Keays has been forced, by law, to remain invisible. Until now, writes Olga Craig. On New Year's Eve, Flora turned 18 and was, for the first time in her life, given a voice. Her first public words have made poignant reading. Of Cecil Parkinson , the father she has never met, she said sadly: "I would like to see him. If he loved me, he would want to see me and be in my everyday life." Of her hopes for a relationship with him, her requests have been modest: "I would like to go to the cinema with him and have some fun." Miss Sara Keays, former secretary and mistress of Mr Cecil Parkinson, leaving St Teresa's Hospital, Wimbledon, with her daughter, Flora Elizabeth Yet it is only now that Flora, who was left with severe disabilities after an operation to remove a brain tumour 14 years ago and also has Asperger's syndrome - a form of autism - has been able to express her wishes.

The illegitimate daughter of Lord Parkinson, the former Tory party chairman once feted as a future Prime Minister and forced to resign as Trade Secretary when Sara Keays, his secretary and mistress, announced her pregnancy, Flora has been the subject of a court order which has silenced her. But now, with its expiry, she is free to talk of her life. So, too, is her mother. Sara Keays's story - her clandestine, 12-year-affair with a government minister; her refusal to fade into the background after making her pregnancy public; her struggle to support her disabled daughter and her dogged battle to win financial support from her former lover - has been the subject of speculation and intrigue for the past 18 years. The court orders have meant that little has been known of the mother and daughter, save that Flora's birth was one of the biggest Westminster scandals of its generation - throwing the married father of three into disgrace and threatening to bring down Thatcher's government. But as Sara contemplates yet another court battle with Parkinson to help pay for the care Flora still needs, she has allowed the world to glimpse what has, until now, been their very private world.

When Flora celebrated her coming of age, she did so with just a trace of hope. As she opened her birthday cards, she knew that there was little chance that, this year, for the first time, her father would acknowledge her birthday. Even so, she hoped. There was no card and no present. Parkinson with his wife and children during his election campaign in Enfield, 1970 Photo: GETTY She said in an interview with the Daily Mail: "Mummy told me not to expect a card but I do feel a bit sad about it. I would like to see him and talk to him." She added: "I think my father has behaved very badly towards me. I feel jealous that my mother has known him but I haven't, and jealous of other people who go on holiday with their fathers, when I don't." Her mother had no such expectation that Parkinson would contact their daughter. Eighteen years ago, he told her he would never see their child.

"It has been," said Sara, "the one promise to me that he has kept, I am afraid." Parkinson himself has never denied that Flora was his daughter - nor that he did promise Sara, during their relationship, that he would leave Ann, his wife, and marry her. But, in 1983, when Sara told him of her pregnancy, she could not have known how far-reaching the effects of his intransigence would be. When the news of Sara's pregnancy broke, Parkinson - then 52 - was at the peak of his political career. He had been credited with masterminding Margaret Thatcher's landslide election victory that June and, within hours of the Tory triumph, Parkinson received his reward: the railwayman's son and self-made multi-millionaire was appointed Trade and Industry Secretary. Parkinson had told the Prime Minister of the relationship and of Sara's pregnancy on election day and, in his autobiography - in which he describes events as "the Keays affair" - he writes: "I told her that I had a serious personal problem and that I was not sure I should be in her Cabinet at all. I explained what the problem was. She was immensely sympathetic, not at all censorious . .

." He added that Baroness Thatcher had warned him that were he not included in the Cabinet "every investigative journalist in the land would be given the task of finding out why". Parkinson accepted the post but his elation was short-lived. Just four months later, at the Tories' Blackpool conference, it was revealed that Sara was carrying his child. His resignation was now inevitable. Cecil Parkinson when he was Secretary of State for Energy Photo: PA In his memoirs, Lord McAlpine, the former Tory party treasurer, recalls how, at the conference, he witnessed "the most extraordinary human drama" as Parkinson and his wife discussed the matter on the eve of his resignation. He wrote: "Cecil and Ann prepared for bed, both insisting that we stay. As they busied themselves, changing into their nightclothes, they kept up a dialogue - he expressing his love for her and fear that she might leave. 'I love you.

I could never manage without you,' he kept repeating." After his resignation (Parkinson, in his autobiography, says he received 16,000 letters of support and only 50 expressing hostility) faded briefly from the spotlight, but it was after Flora's birth that the real battles with Sara began. Parkinson, Sara insists, had tried to persuade her to abort her baby, but she refused. Shortly after her birth, Flora developed serious health problems and Parkinson applied for and won a court injunction that was almost unprecedented in British law. It forbade anyone, including Sara, from speaking of Flora publicly or doing almost anything that could lead to her identity being revealed. It prevented even Flora talking of her life. So far-reaching were its powers that Flora's schools have had to go to extreme lengths to conceal her identity - thus she has never been photographed alongside her classmates or been allowed to take part in any school activity. It has meant, too, that her health problems have never been fully revealed. Though a lively, outgoing young woman, her surgery has left her with serious social and learning difficulties. The price that Flora has paid has been high.

She said: "I feel I have been ignored until now and I hate that. It has not been fair." Sara herself has battled, in vain, to have the court order lifted - even though she has guarded Flora's privacy fiercely - even appealing to the European Court of Human Rights. She believes that it has been kept in place to protect Parkinson rather than her daughter, describing it as an "abomination" and "the sort of thing you could imagine happening only in Stalinist Russia". She has battled, too, to win adequate maintenance. When, after yet another court application for more money, Parkinson suggested that Flora should be institutionalised, her anger boiled over. Parkinson, the man she once regarded as "the only man I have ever loved" used the injunction to shield his reputation, she believes. Margaret Thatcher and Cecil Parkinson at 10 Downing Street During General Election in 1983 She said: "It created the belief that there was some dreadful secret about Flora, which stoked up artificial interest in her.

I feel she was singled out for treatment which had never been meted out to another child." She added: "A disabled child already feels isolated and rejected, and she was made to feel that far more acutely by the injunction. The only one to benefit is Cecil Parkinson. The injunction has stopped me getting Flora the help she needed because everyone assumed the worst about her - and about me - and I could do nothing to change those perceptions." She went on to say: "It has created the impression that I wanted to expose her to publicity, when in reality I have spent every moment guarding her interests. I kept her illness secret for more than a year, despite the fact I had to take her to hospital innumerable times. I even had her medical records kept under an assumed name for the first five years of her life." Sara is angry, too, that her daughter cannot understand why her father has shown no interest in meeting her or introducing her to his other children. She said: "I decided to tell her that lots of children never saw their fathers - but that did not mean their fathers did not love them. I did not want her to feel deprived." That Flora so closely resembles her father has brought no comfort.

She is 5ft 10in tall and has his high cheekbones and a firm chin softened by a dimple. She has even inherited many of his mannerisms. Clearly ill at ease about discussing her lengthy relationship with Parkinson, Sara said: "I get so agitated talking about everything that happened. I cope by putting a large stone on the past and living in the present." She admits, however, that her affair was a serious error of judgment, saying: "Love is blind and I think he was in love with me. But I am not the first woman who has made a misjudgment about a man. We must take responsibility for our own actions and misjudgments, and falling in love with someone is one's own responsibility." Sara, while distressed that her former lover has never contacted their daughter, has strong reservations about such a meeting. "If he only saw her once, I know it would cause her terrible distress and just show her what she had missed. I would feel very nervous about anything that would cause her more grief than she already suffers." She added: "He would have to become involved properly in her life.

It is very natural and entirely right for her to want to see her father, but lots of children don't and survive." This article was originally published on January 6th 2002. Lord Cecil Parkinson dies aged 84 after a long battle with cancer | Daily Mail Online comments Death: Former Tory minister Lord Cecil Parkinson, pictured in 2013 at Lady Thatcher's funeral, has died after a long battle with cancer, his family announced today Former Tory minister Lord Cecil Parkinson has died after a long battle with cancer aged 84, his family announced today. The former party chairman became Mrs Thatcher's cabinet favourite and was tipped to be a future prime minister after playing a key part in her landslide 1983 general election win. But his rise to the top of British politics ended abruptly after a 12-year affair with his secretary Sara Keays emerged after she became pregnant with their child, Flora. His family said today he had been battling cancer for some time and died on Friday. A spokesman said: 'Cecil passed away on January 22 after a long battle with cancer. 'We shall miss him enormously.

As a family, we should like to pay tribute to him as a beloved husband to Ann and brother to Norma, and a supportive and loving father to Mary, Emma and Joanna and grandfather to their children. 'We also salute his extraordinary commitment to British public life as a member of parliament, cabinet minister and peer - together with a distinguished career in business.' David Cameron led tributes to the former cabinet minister, saying he had been 'part of an extraordinary political generation'. As a grammar school pupil who went to Cambridge, becoming a chartered accountant and enjoying a successful business career before entering parliament, Cecil Parkinson had much in common with Baroness Thatcher. He played a big part in Mrs Thatcher's 1983 election win only to resign as Trade and Industry Secretary after a public statement made by Miss Keays, the spurned lover who was expecting his child. RELATED ARTICLES Share 427 shares The former party chairman told Mrs Thatcher about his 12-year affair on June 9, 1983, the day of the election.

He wrote to her: 'It seems strange that after over eight years on the front bench as part of your team, I am now to be a spectator of events rather than a participant in them.' Mrs Thatcher was said to have told him: 'You can sort this out' after he revealed that his lover was pregnant - but after Miss Keays spoke out about their affair the prime minister accepted his resignation. Much loved: Cecil Parkinson with his wife Ann in 1998, who today paid tribute to her beloved husband Big win: Lord Parkinson celebrates with Mrs Thatcher and her husband Denis at Tory Central Office in 1983 Scandal: Lord Parkinson was forced to resign after an affair with secretary Sara Keays became public when she became pregnant Frustrated at the way Parkinson seemed to be weathering the storm, Keays revealed that, following her pregnancy, he had twice withdrawn offers to marry her in order to save his career. LORD PARKINSON REFUSED TO MEET HIS DAUGHTER FLORA Sara Keays, the former mistress Secretary Cecil Parkinson, leaving St.

Teresa's Hospital in London with their daughter Flora Lord Parkinson's lover Sara Keays said that his refusal to see his daughter was 'the one promise to me that he has kept'. When she turned 18 herself Flora spoke out for the first time and told the Daily Mail: 'I would like to meet my Daddy because I haven't been given the chance to see him yet. 'I would like to see him. If he loved me, he would want to see me and be in my everyday life'. She added: 'I think my father has behaved very badly towards me. I feel jealous that my mother has known him but I haven’t, and jealous of other people who go on holiday with their fathers, when I don’t'. Her mother Sara claimed that he wanted her to have an abortion - and when she refused he got a court order to stop her being named until she was 18. She was kept out of her school photos and off her academic achievements in the face of a rare form of autism were not allowed on the school's board.

Miss Keays said afterwards: 'What the judge effectively did was to say: 'it's okay for everybody to know about all the lies that have been uttered about her mother and raking over the past and talk about her father, but nobody can know about Flora.' The former lovers also fought in court over financial support for Flora, who has learning difficulties, and it is not known if he ever met her before he died last Friday. Mr Parkinson was forced to resign a few months later on October 14 after Miss Keays decided to publish a statement to 'put the record straight' regarding the nature of their relationship. She wrote: 'My baby was conceived in a long-standing, loving relationship which I allowed to continue because I believed in our eventual marriage.' Flora Keays was born on New Year's Eve 1983, although an injunction prevented her identity from being known or publicly reported until she turned 18. Mrs Thatcher was secretly planning to appoint Mr Parkinson as Foreign Secretary, a move that would have kick-started his rise to the top. But then the former party chairman told Mrs Thatcher about his 12-year affair on June 9, 1983, the day of the election.

He wrote to her: 'It seems strange that after over eight years on the front bench as part of your team, I am now to be a spectator of events rather than a participant in them.' Mrs Thatcher was said to have told him: 'You can sort this out' after he revealed that his lover was pregnant - but after Miss Keays spoke out about their affair the prime minister accepted his resignation. Frustrated at the way Parkinson seemed to be weathering the storm, Keays revealed that, following her pregnancy, he had twice withdrawn offers to marry her in order to save his career. Mr Parkinson was forced to resign a few months later on October 14 after Miss Keays decided to publish a statement to 'put the record straight' regarding the nature of their relationship. She wrote: 'My baby was conceived in a long-standing, loving relationship which I allowed to continue because I believed in our eventual marriage.' Flora Keays was born on New Year's Eve 1983, although an injunction prevented her identity from being known or publicly reported until she turned 18. Mr Parkinson remained in his marriage – and returned to the government in 1987.

He later served as secretary of state for energy, and for transport, leaving office at the same time as Thatcher in 1990 and was made a peer two years later. He briefly made a comeback as Conservative Party chairman after the Tories' general election hammering in 1997. Lord Parkinson retired from his second stint as party chairman in 1998, and from then on kept a relatively low profile while carrying on with parliamentary work. He formally retired from the Upper House last September, as he battled his illness. Scandal: Cecil Parkinson and Margaret Thatcher during the Conservative Party Conference in 1981. Thatcher may have been considering him as her successor before his admission of a love child derailed his political career Heart-felt: Cecil Parkinson's resignation note and Mrs Thatcher's reply to her favourite minister David Cameron has led tributes to former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Parkinson, praising him as a 'man of huge ability' who helped to transform Britain in the 1980s. Speaking in No 10, the Prime Minister said: 'He was the first big political figure that I ever worked for and got to know. He was a man of huge ability.

Sara Keays, former secretary and mistress of Cecil Parkinson, had a 12-year affair with the minister only exposed when she fell pregnant in 1983 (pictured) 'He was passionate that what he was doing and the team of ministers that he worked with was about transforming Britain in the 1980s by improving industrial relations, by reforming the trade unions, by making sure that business was in the private sector, by encouraging entrepreneurship. 'He was someone I really enjoyed working with a great deal. He was part of a great political generation that did really extraordinary things for our country. He will be hugely missed on all sides of the political divide.' Sir Alan Duncan, who was Conservative vice-chairman under Lord Parkinson's chairmanship of the party from 1997-98, said: 'He started as Margaret Thatcher's great marketing man for overseas trade and turned into one of the great personalities of the Thatcher era. He was a central part of her main team. 'He was personable, amusing, easy-going and mischievously witty and a great member of the parliamentary skiing team.' Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said on Twitter: 'Sad to hear of death of Cecil Parkinson.

I worked with him when he was party chairman in 1997-8 - he was there in our hour of greatest need.' Former cabinet minister Sir Malcolm Rifkind said Lord Parkinson could have gone on to succeed Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Party leader and prime minister if it had not been for the scandal over his affair with his secretary, Sara Keays. He said Mrs Thatcher had been intending to make him foreign secretary after, as party chairman, he masterminded her 1983 general election triumph. 'Cecil Parkinson would have been the most natural candidate to succeed Margaret Thatcher because she would have had tremendous confidence in him as someone who shared her basic theme,' he told BBC News. 'In her words he was 'one of us'. He shared her views, her thoughts, her ideas. They came from the same position on the political spectrum and therefore she was comfortable with him and had confidence in him. 'In addition to that, at a personal level he was able to charm her. He was a very good-looking, very handsome man.

She was attracted by men who were both good-looking but also had strong principles and strong views.' MPs and others who knew him paid tribute to Lord Parkinson today after his death from cancer But firebrand George Galloway used his death as a chance to attack him over his treatment of his daughter Another former cabinet minister, Michael Portillo, said Lord Parkinson was a 'very helpful right-hand man' to Mrs Thatcher and a 'very well-organised' party chairman. 'He was very much of (Mrs Thatcher's) mind. He had an easy-going charm and charisma,' he told the BBC. 'He was a very attractive man, and she liked to have around her manly men, and he absolutely suited what she was looking for in that early 1980s period when the Conservative Party was seen as rather tough, rather austere, rather aloof. He brought something else to it.' Former Conservative leader Lord Hague - who brought Lord Parkinson in for a second stint as party chairman in 1997 - said: 'He was a very popular figure in the party. He did me a great favour. He was an unusually nice man for a politician.

'He had no previous intention of coming back into politics but when I asked him to come back as party chairman to help me see the party through a very difficult time, he thought about it for 24 hours, consulted his wife, but then he did it and he did a great job. I've never forgotten that.' As a grammar school-educated man from the north of England, Lord Parkinson was 'something quite different from the general perception of a Conservative MP at that time', said Mr Portillo. Mr Portillo said the Keays affair 'definitely held back his career', saying that Thatcher had otherwise intended to make him foreign secretary. Cecil Parkinson's fall from grace | Politics | News | Daily Express POLITICS Cecil Parkinson: From Margaret Thatcher's right-hand man to a career-ruining affair THE one-time Tory election mastermind, who died last week aged 84, was Margaret Thatcher’s handsome high flyer – until an affair ruined his career PUBLISHED: 21:10, Mon, Jan 25, 2016 ALAMY Cecil Parkinson was a cabinet minister during Thatcher's government She was a grocer’s daughter, he was the son of a railwayman.

They believed in the same things – family values, self-reliance, enterprise, the free market – and they despised the same thing… socialism. Margaret Thatcher and Cecil Parkinson were truly a political match made in heaven. Which is why Parkinson’s fall from grace over the revelation that he had made his secretary pregnant was so shocking – it haunted him for three decades. Lord Parkinson’s death from cancer at the age of 84 closes a chapter in politics matched only by the Profumo scandal of the 1960s. Parkinson’s downfall, like that of John Profumo, was brought about by love and jealousy, with a good sprinkling of revenge thrown in by Parkinson’s mistress, Sara Keays. It could have been so very different. Parkinson was Maggie’s trusted right-hand man who as party chairman had brilliantly masterminded her election victory over Michael Foot in 1983 and was being groomed as her successor. Related articles Sara Keays the former mistress of the Cecil Parkinson I think my father has behaved very badly towards me Flora Keays on her father On the evening of election day, Parkinson confessed to the prime minister the truth about him and his secretary, who was 16 years his junior.

Later that night he and the prime minister put on a joint show, waving to jubilant crowds from the party’s then headquarters in London’s Smith Square. Within 12 hours the joy turned to heartbreak. Just before Parkinson was due in Downing Street for a celebration lunch, the PM received a letter from Sara Keays’ father telling her his daughter was pregnant. Thatcher wrote in her diary: “When Cecil arrived I showed him the letter. It must have been one of the worst moments of his life.” Parkinson had no choice but to admit the affair and the pregnancy publicly. He said he would be staying with his wife Ann and would make financial arrangements for the baby. Many thought he could ride out the storm but it proved impossible. During the Conservative conference in Blackpool in October Keays gave a newspaper interview to “put the record straight”. She revealed he had twice proposed to her, including once before she was pregnant, but that each time he’d changed his mind. “My baby was conceived in a long-standing, loving relationship, which I allowed to continue because I believed in our eventual marriage,” she said.

Details of the statement were flashed from Downing Street to Blackpool at 2am and 15 minutes later Parkinson had a brief meeting with the PM in her room. At 8am, with most delegates having breakfast, he resigned. Any chance of a return to high office was destroyed when Keays published a book in which she claimed Parkinson had “begged” her to have an abortion and that he had “haggled over every pound” of support for their child, a claim he denied. PA Cecil Parkinson and his wife Ann In his diaries the late Tory minister Alan Clark recorded meeting Parkinson in December 1983. “I said it was a disaster. He would have been prime minister. He knew privately. He was the Lady’s own choice. She had been grooming him, introducing him to the royals, especially the Prince of Wales. The switch could have happened when the time was ripe, certainly no later than her 10th anniversary.” Flora Keays was born in the January and her mother wasted no time reminding Parkinson publicly of his marital misdemeanours. It kept him on the backbenches for four years, during which time he was hit by another hammer blow when one of his three daughters developed a heroin addiction.

Lady Parkinson, niece of an archbishop, always said it was her religious belief that helped her cope. Thatcher remained loyal to the man who had never wavered in his support for her and her political creed, and in June 1987 he was back in government as energy secretary and two years later was made transport secretary. The roles were in many ways a poisoned chalice because he faced the Herculean task of privatising the electricity industry, which turned into a mess, and then after announcing a £12billion motorway building scheme his spending plans were torn apart by the Treasury. Some thought he was being groomed as Chancellor but surprisingly John Major got the job. Then when Major became PM after Thatcher’s downfall, Parkinson resigned and announced he would not be fighting his Hertfordshire seat at the next election. The darling of the Tory party – and Maggie’s best-loved, most loyal supporter – seemed finished. EXPRESS Margaret Thatcher and Cecil Parkinson were truly a political match made in heaven He was made a life peer in 1992 and became vociferous in the Lords over his antipathy to the EU and his grave doubts about whether Britain should be in it.

In a surprise move in 1997, William Hague, who succeeded Major as Tory leader, chose Lord Parkinson of Carnforth, then almost 66, as party chairman again. He retired a year later and went back to the red benches of the House of Lords, an ever more ardent opponent of the EU. When she was 18, Flora Keays talked for the first time about her father. “If he loved me, he would want to see me and be in my everyday life. I think my father has behaved very badly towards me.” And it was revealed that although Parkinson had paid for his child’s education and upkeep, he had never sent her a birthday card. It was a devastating epitaph to a career that could once have seen Cecil Parkinson hold the highest offices in the land. Related articles

Question: Which Cabinet minister fathered Flora Keays by his secretary?
Answer: Cecil PARKINSON