John Biffen was a major Conservative politician during the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, and, like so many of his senior colleagues, fell out with the Iron Lady at the height of her powers in the 1980s. Quite a change from his early life in rural Somerset.
As Biffen proudly states at the beginning of his autobiography, “I was Somerset born and Somerset descended. It really is remarkable that for over two hundred years my forebears seemed to have dwelt not only in Somerset but within a twenty-mile radius of the Levels and the Mendips.” Born in a Bridgwater nursing home in 1930, he lived at the family farm between Combwich and Otterhampton, and attended Dr Morgan’s School in Bridgwater during the War.
It was at that school that his Toryism first developed, but the young John also supported policies like coal nationalisation. As he freely admitted, “years later I had no problem about being an elastic Tory.” After National Service and studying at Jesus College, Cambridge, his political activism grew in and around Birmingham in the 1950s, where he was working for the Tube Investments company.
In the 1959 general election he stood against the formidable Labour politician, Richard Crossman, in Coventry East. He campaigned in a loudspeaker van contrasting the two main candidates: “Richard Crossman is an intellectual but you can vote for John Biffen.” Not surprisingly, he lost heavily.
His real opportunity came at a by-election in late 1961 for the safe Shropshire seat of Oswestry. During the selection process, he faced many who doubted his rural credentials, which he overcame by bringing his parents up from Somerset. His farmer father, with his strong Somerset accent, so won over the local Tories, that some even suggested that he be selected in place of John! As Biffen wrote later, “Thereafter I keep my father far away in Somerset as a strategic reserve.” He won the seat, but with a reduced majority.
His maiden speech the following July came at a crisis time for Harold Macmillan’s ailing Conservative Government. Following a panic Cabinet reshuffle (‘The Night of the Long Knives’) the Labour Opposition forced a no-confidence debate. Not the easiest stage for a new MP’s first speech, but it was rated a success.
His career stalled for years, as he was out of favour with the Tory leadership. Though a Shropshire MP, he still remembered his roots, and proudly recalled that he had opposed the creation of “the artificial county of Avon substantially at the expense of my native county of Somerset.”
Margaret Thatcher’s election as Tory leader in 1975 enabled him to enter front-bench politics, though he was plagued by recurrent ill-health. He joined her first Cabinet in 1979, holding several senior posts thereafter. However, by the mid-1980s, he was clearly becoming disillusioned with Thatcherism and her style, and became sidelined.
When he spoke in a 1986 TV interview of the need ‘a balanced ticket’ to prepare for a post-Thatcher era, he was denounced by the PM’s blunt Press Secretary, Bernard Ingham, as being ‘semi-detached’. His inevitable dismissal came immediately after the 1987 general election.
He retired from his seat in 1997, serving in the House of Lords until his death in 2007. There are two memorials to him in Somerset – the Lord Biffen prize given by Old Morganians (his old school) to a Bridgwater College student, and a Blue Plaque at Otterhampton Village Hall, which was unveiled by his widow in February 2009.
© JB Seatrobe (Barry K Winetrobe & Janet Seaton) 2018. A version of this article was published originally in the March 2017 issue of the Somerset Leveller, #23.