Nigel Lawson dies: The life of Thatcher’s chancellor, from political clashes to the Big Boom and climate scepticism
Nigel Lawson, chancellor to Margaret Thatcher, has died at the age of 91.
He leaves behind five of his six children, including TV chef Nigella Lawson and journalist Dominic Lawson. One of his daughters, Thomasina, died aged 32.
Born in Hampstead, northwest London, on 11 March 1932, the son of the owner of a tea-trading firm climbed his way to the top of British politics after an education at Westminster School and Oxford University.
His political life started at Oxford, where he did Philosophy, Politics and Economics – like many other politicians – but he began his working life carrying out national service as a Royal Navy officer.
Lord Lawson, as he was to become, then became a financial journalist, writing for the Financial Times and The Sunday Telegraph, before becoming editor of The Spectator.
After 14 years as a journalist, in 1970 he stood to become an MP, unsuccessfully, for the Eton and Slough seat before eventually winning the now-defunct Leicestershire constituency of Blaby four years later.
When the Conservatives won the election in 1979 under Mrs Thatcher, she made him financial secretary to the Treasury and her policies at the time clearly reflected his influence.
She then promoted him to energy secretary, where he helped prepare for what he called “inevitable” full-scale strikes in the coal industry, which had been nationalised by Labour prime minister Clement Attlee.
But it was as chancellor that Mr Lawson ensured he would go down in the history books.
Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet in 1983. Nigel Lawson is sitting third from the left
Tax cuts, the Big Bang and the Lawson Boom
The second longest-serving chancellor after Gordon Brown, Mr Lawson was key to Mrs Thatcher’s economic policies – and success.
After getting the job in 1983 he pushed ahead with tax reforms, reducing corporation taxes and lowering National Insurance contributions for the lower-paid, while extending the VAT base.
From 1986, his public image grew after he reduced the standard rate of personal income tax and unemployment began to fall.
He also managed to turn around government finances from a budget deficit of £10.5bn in 1983 to a surplus of £3.9bn in 1988 and £4.1bn in 1989.
However, the government’s current account deficit increased from below 1% GDP to almost 5% in three years.
Mr Lawson managed to honour his promise to bring taxation rates down, with the basic rate going from 30% to 25%, and the top tax rate from 60% to 40%. He also removed other higher rates so nobody paid above 40% in personal tax.
One of his major triumphs was the Big Bang of 1986, which saw the City’s financial markets deregulated and London strengthened as a financial capital – but in 2010, he admitted the “unintended consequence” of that was the 2007 financial crisis.
He even had a period of economic growth named after him. The Lawson Boom saw the UK economy on the up after 1986, with unemployment halved.
However, that led to a rise in inflation to 8% in 1988 and interest rates doubled to 15% within 18 months, with critics accusing Mr Lawson of unleashing an inflationary spiral due to his policies.
In his 1992 memoir, written just after he stepped down as an MP, Mr Lawson admitted the 1987 manifesto was not properly thought through and if it had not been for the economic growth, the manifesto would have been a disaster.
“As it was, it was merely an embarrassment,” he said.
Mr Lawson with a battered red Budget Box in 1987
Clashes with Thatcher
While he was Mrs Thatcher’s right-hand man, the pair did not always see eye-to-eye and he was overruled in cabinet when he opposed introducing a poll tax to replace local government financing.
There was also the now-infamous 1988 budget, which took nearly two hours for Mr Lawson to announce as there were continuous interruptions and protests from opposition parties.
The then-depute leader of the Scottish National Party, Alex Salmond, was suspended from the Commons for his constant interruptions and MPs voted against amending the law bill.
Nigel Lawson with Margaret Thatcher at the 1989 Conservative Party Conference
Mrs Thatcher and her chancellor also clashed over the exchange-rate mechanism (ERM) membership in 1985, with Mr Lawson – ironically, as he became a Brexiteer – believing membership was the only way forward to help convince the markets the UK was committed to fiscal discipline.
It proved to be one of Mrs Thatcher’s most tumultuous meetings with her senior ministers as she single-handedly faced them down after Mr Lawson had spoken separately to all of the ministers present to persuade them to ambush her.
Mr Lawson later said he had considered resigning after she said their arguments did not convince her, but he was dissuaded by colleagues. Mrs Thatcher was persuaded to sign up to the ERM five years later by Mr Lawson’s successor, John Major.
The prime minister’s relationship with her chancellor took another dive when she re-employed economist Alan Walters in 1989 as her personal economic adviser, with Mr Lawson at loggerheads with them over the ERM.
He threatened to resign if Mrs Thatcher did not sack Mr Walters over his support of the ERM. Mrs Thatcher wrote in a private memo that was “absurd” and urged him to rethink – and Mr Lawson quit.
National Archive files released in 2017 revealed the extent Mr Walters was briefing against Mr Lawson, including telling Mrs Thatcher that Mr Lawson’s position over the ERM was having a devastating impact on the UK economy.
Mr Lawson’s resignation was seen as the beginning of the end for Mrs Thatcher, with her foreign secretary Geoffrey Howe resigning shortly after – and Mrs Thatcher resigned in 1990 after Michael Heseltine decided to challenge her for leadership of the Conservative Party.
Post-Thatcher
Mr Lawson remained as a backbencher until 1992, when he was elevated to the House of Lords with a life peerage, and was known as Lord Lawson of Blaby.
Months after he stood down as an MP, he lost five stone after his doctor told him his knee problems would not stop if he continued to carry the weight.
It dramatically changed his appearance and he published The Nigel Lawson Diet Book, which became a best seller.
Previously 17 stone and 5ft 9, he had been an easy target for political cartoonists – although it did not bother him – and he admitted after losing weight: “I was certainly a fat man.
“It came up gradually, and by the time I was chancellor, certainly, that was the thing the cartoonists seized on; that was part of the image – no doubt about it.”
Mr Lawson used his time away from the Commons to occasionally appear as a guest on daughter Nigella’s cookery shows.
He also served on the advisory board of the Conservative magazine Standpoint.
Two wives, six children
Mr Lawson was married twice. His first wife was former ballet dancer Vanessa Salmon with whom he had Dominic (the journalist), Thomasina (who died of breast cancer aged 32), Nigella (the TV chef) and Horatia. After they divorced, Ms Salmon died of liver cancer aged 48.
His second wife was former Commons researcher Therese Maclear, who he married the same year he divorced Ms Salmon. They had son Tom and daughter Emily before they divorced in 2008.
Nigel Lawson with his TV chef daughter Nigella Lawson in 2008
In 2011, he found love again at the age of 79 with 42-year-old Dr Tina Jennings, a former banker who was previously married to New Zealand’s richest man.
However, they split up two years later, with Dr Jennings reportedly finding it hard to go regularly to France, which Mr Lawson did every weekend.
Controversial support for Brexit
In 2009, Mr Lawson was caught up in the parliamentary expenses scandal after he was accused of claiming £16,000 in overnight allowances by registering his farmhouse in Gascony, southwest France, as his main residence.
In 2013, the former chancellor pushed for the UK to leave the EU and ahead of the 2016 referendum he was appointed chairman of the Vote Leave campaign.
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Nigel Lawson on George Osborne’s 2016 Autumn Statement
At the time, he was living in France and in 2018 started to apply for his official French residency card.
His critics accused him of hypocrisy for living in France yet campaigning for the UK to leave the EU, but he said he did not believe the issue of Britons living in other EU countries was a big problem in the Brexit negotiations.
In 2019, Mr Lawson returned to live in the UK after putting his Gascony mansion on the market. He said it was to be close to his children and grandchildren.
Climate scepticism
In opposition to Mrs Thatcher, who helped put climate change on the agenda, Mr Lawson was very sceptical of the concept and denied global warming is taking place to such a large degree as many scientists say.
He wrote a letter in 2004 criticising the Kyoto Protocol and claiming there were substantial scientific uncertainties.
As a member of the House of Lords Economics Affairs Select Committee, he carried out an inquiry into climate change in 2005 and recommended the Treasury take a more active role in climate policy.
The report said there was a mismatch between the economic costs and the benefits of climate policy – which kicked off a tussle between him and Michael Grubb, chief economist of the Carbon Trust.
He contributed to the 2007 documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle and in 2008 published a book called An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming.
In the book, he admitted global warming is happening and will have negative consequences but said the impact of those changes will be moderate rather than apocalyptic, and criticised “alarmist” politicians and scientists.
He was heavily denounced by climate scientists and the UK’s chief scientific adviser at the time, Sir John Beddington, who privately told Mr Lawson he had “incorrect” and “misleading” claims in the book.
But that did not stop him airing his views, and in 2009 he launched a new thinktank called The Global Warming Policy Foundation.
His journalist son, Dominic Lawson, is also a climate change sceptic.
The government has taken the first step in appealing a court’s decision that asylum seekers cannot be housed in an Essex hotel.
The Home Office is seeking permission to intervene in the case, which, if granted, will allow it to appeal the interim judgment handed down last week.
Epping Forest District Council sought an interim High Court injunction to stop migrants from being accommodated at The Bell Hotel in Epping, which is owned by Somani Hotels Limited.
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Councils vs migrant hotels: What next?
The interim injunction demanded the hotel be cleared of its occupants within 14 days.
In a ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Eyre granted the temporary block, but extended the time limit by which it must stop housing asylum seekers to 12 September.
Somani Hotels will now appeal against the court order blocking the use of the hotel as accommodation for asylum seekers, the company’s solicitors have said.
Meanwhile, security minister Dan Jarvis said on Friday that closing hotels housing asylum seekers must be done “in a managed and ordered way” as he unveiled government plans to challenge the High Court’s decision.
He told broadcasters: “This government will close all asylum hotels and we will clear up the mess that we inherited from the previous government.
“We’ve made a commitment that we will close all of the asylum hotels by the end of this parliament, but we need to do that in a managed and ordered way.
“And that’s why we’ll appeal this decision.”
An analysis by Sky News has found 18 other councils are also actively pursuing or considering similar legal challenges to block asylum hotels – including Labour-run Tamworth and Wirral.
Disquiet with the use of asylum hotels is at a high after the latest statistics showed there were more than 32,000 asylum seekers currently staying in hotels, marking a rise of 8% during Labour’s first year in office.
The number of small boat crossings in the Channel is also up 38% on the previous 12 months.
Following the Epping case, a wave of protests is expected outside of asylum hotels across the country in the coming days.
Stand Up To Racism is preparing to hold counter-protests outside the asylum hotels on Friday, including in Bournemouth, Cardiff and Leeds, with further demonstrations expected on Saturday.
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‘We can’t take them’: Wirral residents on migration
In its case, Epping Forest District Council argued that the owners of the Bell Hotel did not have planning permission to use the premises to accommodate asylum seekers.
It argued that the injunction was needed amid “unprecedented levels of protest and disruption” in connection with the accommodation.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said the people of Epping who protested and its council have “led the way”, writing in The Telegraph that “our country’s patience has snapped”.
His Conservative colleague Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, said on Thursday that people have “every right” to protest over asylum hotels in their areas.
Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, has urged councils to explore legal challenges – with Conservative-run Broxbourne Council announcing that it would do so.
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Hillingdon Council, which is also controlled by the Tories, also said it was exploring its options.
Meanwhile, former Reform chairman Zia Yusuf told Sky News three councils run by his party had the power to mount legal challenges.
He said West Northamptonshire, which Reform seized control of in May’s local elections, would be doing so.
In a further headache for Sir Keir Starmer, Labour-controlled councils are also considering legal action, including Wirral and Tamworth.
Paula Basnett, the Labour leader of Wirral council, said: “We are actively considering all options available to us to ensure that any use of hotels or other premises in Wirral is lawful and does not ride roughshod over planning regulations or the wishes of our communities.”
Carol Dean, the Labour leader of Tamworth Borough Council, said she understood the “strong feelings” of residents about the use of a local hotel to house asylum seekers, and added: “We are closely monitoring developments and reviewing our legal position”.
Labour-controlled Stevenage council added: “The council takes breaches of planning control seriously and we’re actively investigating alleged breaches relating to the operation of hotels in Stevenage.”
Actor Noel Clarke has lost his High Court libel case against the publisher of The Guardian, over a series of news articles which featured claims from a number of women.
The first article, published in April 2021, said some 20 women who knew Clarke in a professional capacity had come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.
The 49-year-old actor, writer and director, best known for his 2006 film Kidulthood and starring in Doctor Who, sued the publisher and vehemently denied “any sexual misconduct or wrongdoing” – but the court has found Guardian News and Media (GNM) successfully defended the legal action on the grounds of truth and public interest.
Noel Clarke outside court during the trial in April. Pic: PA
The meanings of all eight of the newspaper’s publications were found to be “substantially true”, the judge, Mrs Justice Steyn, said in a summary of the findings.
“I have accepted some of Mr Clarke’s evidence… but overall I find that he was not a credible or reliable witness,” she said.
In her ruling, the judge also said suggestions that more than 20 witnesses, “none of whom are parties or have a stake in this case, as [Clarke] does” had come to court to lie was “inherently implausible”.
From the evidence heard, it was “clear that women have been speaking about their experiences of working with Mr Clarke for many years”, she said.
‘A deserved victory for women who suffered’
Lucy Osborne and Sirin Kale, the journalists who carried out the investigation, told Sky News they had always been confident in everything published.
“I think that this is not a problem that’s going to go away,” said Osborne. “This kind of behaviour very much still happens in the TV and film industry and other industries. So I do hope this judgment gives other women the confidence to speak out about what they’ve experienced.”
Clarke rose to fame with his 2006 film Kidulthood. Pic: PA
Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner described the ruling as “a deserved victory for those women who suffered because of the behaviour of Noel Clarke”.
She continued: “Going to court is difficult and stressful, yet more than 20 women agreed to testify in the High Court, refusing to be bullied or intimidated.
“This is also a landmark judgment for Guardian journalism, and for investigative journalism in Britain… The judgment is clear that our investigation was thorough and fair, a template for public interest journalism.”
Clarke’s response
Clarke described the result as disappointing and maintained he believes the newspaper’s reporting was “inaccurate and damaging”.
“I have never claimed to be perfect,” he said. “But I am not the person described in these articles. Overnight I lost everything.”
He said he wanted to thank witnesses who supported his case, as well as his family, “who never stopped believing there was something worth fighting for”.
What happened during the trial?
The trial took place from early March to early April 2025, hearing evidence from multiple witnesses who made accusations against Clarke, including that he had allegedly shared nude photographs of them without their consent, groped them, and asked them to look at him when he was exposed.
Clarke also gave evidence over several days. At one stage, the actor appeared visibly emotional as he claimed the publisher had “smashed my life” with its investigation.
His lawyer told the court he had been made a “scapegoat” and was an “easy target”, as a star at the height of his success when the media industry “zealously sought to correct itself” following the #MeToo movement.
The actor had been handed the outstanding British contribution to cinema award at the BAFTAs just a few weeks before the report was published. Following the article, BAFTA announced it had suspended his membership.
But lawyers for The Guardian told how newspaper’s investigation was “careful and thorough”, saying it had been carried out “conscientiously” by the journalists involved.
In March 2022, police said the actor would not face a criminal investigation over the allegations.
On the 10th anniversary of the Shoreham air disaster, the families of some of those killed have criticised the regulator for what they describe as a “shocking” ongoing attitude towards safety.
On 22 August 2015, a vintage fighter jet plummeted out of the sky and crashed into one of the busiest roads in Sussex, killing 11 men.
Most of them weren’t even watching the aerobatic display overhead when they were engulfed in a fireball that swept down the dual carriageway.
A crane removes the remains of the fighter jet that crashed on the A27. File pic: Reuters
Jacob Schilt, 23, and his friend Matthew Grimstone, also 23, were driving to play in a match for their football team, Worthing United FC.
Both sets of parents are deeply angry that their beloved sons lost their lives in this way.
“It obviously changed our lives forever, and it’s a huge reminder every 22nd of August, because it’s such a public anniversary. It’s destroyed our lives really,” his mum, Caroline Shilt, said.
“It was catastrophic for all of us,” Jacob’s father, Bob, added.
Jacob Schilt died in the Shoreham disaster
Matthew Grimstone on his 23rd birthday, the last before he died in the Shoreham disaster
‘They had no protection’
Sue and Phil Grimstone argue that the regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), has not been held accountable for allowing the airshow to take place where it did.
“At Shoreham, the permission given by the CAA did not allow displaying aircraft to perform over paying spectators or their parked cars,” they said.
“But aircraft were permitted to fly aerobatics directly over the A27, which was in the display area, a known busy road.
“This was about ignoring the safety of people travelling on a major road in favour of having an air show. They had no protection.”
Caroline Schilt said the continuing lack of accountability, a decade after the disaster, “makes us very angry.”
Caroline and Bob Schilt
A programme for a memorial for Jacob Schilt and Matthew Grimstone
Sue and Phil Grimstone say the CAA has not been held accountable
A series of catastrophic errors
The crash happened while the experienced pilot, Andy Hill, a former RAF instructor, was attempting to fly a loop in a 1950s Hawker Hunter jet.
But he made a series of catastrophic errors. His speed as the plane pitched up into the manoeuvre was far too slow, and therefore, he failed to get enough height to be able to pull out of the dive safely. The jet needed to be at least 1,500ft higher.
Mr Hill survived the crash but says he does not remember what happened, and a jury at the Old Bailey found him not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter in 2019.
Andrew Hill arrives at the Old Bailey in London in 2019.
Pic: PA
When the inquest finally concluded in 2022, the coroner ruled the men had been unlawfully killed because of a series of “gross errors” committed by the pilot.
The rules around air shows have been tightened up since the crash, with stricter risk assessments, minimum height requirements, crowd protection distances, and checks on pilots.
But Jacob and Matt’s families believe the CAA still isn’t doing enough to protect people using roads near airshows, or other bystanders not attending the events themselves.
“They’re really not thinking about third parties and other road users,” said Caroline. “It’s quite shocking” added Bob.
Emergency services attend the scene on the A27.
Pic: PA
The families recently raised concerns about the Duxford airshow in a meeting with the CAA.
While aircraft are no longer allowed to fly aerobatics over the M11, they do so nearby – and can fly over the road at 200ft to reconfigure and return. If the M11 has queuing traffic in the area, the display must be stopped or curtailed.
The Grimstones believe this demonstrates accepting “an element of risk” and are frustrated that the CAA only commissioned an independent review looking at congested roads and third-party protection earlier this year.
“We feel the CAA are still dragging their feet when it comes to the safety of third parties on major roads directly near an air show,” they said.
The family have complained about the CAA to the parliamentary ombudsman.
A memorial for the Shoreham Airshow victims on the banks of the Adur in Shoreham
‘There are still question marks’
Some experts also believe the CAA has questions to answer about a previous incident involving Mr Hill, after organisers of the 2014 Southport Airshow brought his display to an emergency stop because he had flown too close to the crowd, and beneath the minimum height for his display.
In its investigation into the Shoreham disaster, the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) later found that while the CAA inspector present had an informal discussion with the pilot, no further action was taken, and the incident was not reported to the AAIB.
Retired pilot Steve Colman has spent many years looking into what happened at Shoreham, and he believes the CAA failed to fulfil their statutory obligation to fully investigate and report the incident at Southport.
“If it had been properly investigated,” he said, “it’s likely the minimum height on the pilot’s display authorisation would have been increased – from 500ft on the Hawker Hunter, it would probably have been increased to 800-1000ft. Or it could have been cancelled. But we will never know.
“You have to ask the question – if the Southport incident had been investigated, then was Shoreham more likely or less likely to have occurred?” he said. “I think there can only be one answer – it’s less likely to have occurred.”
Tim Loughton, who was the MP for Shoreham at the time, believes a balance must be struck.
“We don’t want to regulate these events out of existence completely. A lot of the smaller air shows no longer happen because they couldn’t comply with the new regulations … but certainly there are still question marks over the way the CAA conducted and continues to conduct itself. I would welcome more parliamentary scrutiny.”
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Shoreham air crash victims (from clockwise top left) Matthew Grimstone, Graham Mallinson, Tony Brightwell, Mark Reeves, Matt Jones, Maurice Abrahams, Richard Smith, Jacob Schilt, Daniele Polito, Mark Trussler, Dylan Archer
Rob Bishton, chief executive at the CAA, said: “Our thoughts remain with the families and friends of those affected by the Shoreham Airshow crash.
“Following the crash, several investigations and safety reviews were carried out to help prevent similar incidents in the future. This included an immediate review of airshow safety and a full investigation by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch. All recommendations and safety improvements from these reviews were fully implemented.
“Airshows continue to be subject to rigorous oversight to ensure the highest possible safety standards are maintained.
“At a previous airshow in 2014 the pilot involved in the Shoreham accident was instructed to abort a display by the show’s flying director. This incident was investigated by the UK Civil Aviation Authority and regulatory action was taken.”
Mr Bishton added: “As part of the work to review the safety oversight of airshows following the tragic Shoreham crash, the actions taken by the regulator following such a stop call were enhanced.”
But the families of those killed still believe much more could be done.
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