Michael Jopling (original) (raw)

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British politician (born 1930)

Thomas Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling, PC, DL (born 10 December 1930) is a British politician who sits in the House of Lords as a member of the Conservative Party.[1][2]

Jopling is the son of Mark Bellerby Jopling (1886–1958), of Masham, North Riding of Yorkshire, a partner in Imeson and Jopling (later Jopling, Cawthorn and Blackburn), surveyors, auctioneers and estate agents.[3][1][4] He was educated at Cheltenham College and Durham University. He was a farmer and company director and served on the national council of the National Farmers Union. Jopling was a councillor on Thirsk Rural District Council.

Having previously stood unsuccessfully in Wakefield in 1959, Jopling was elected Conservative MP for Westmorland, now in Cumbria, in 1964 and became Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1979 to 1983. In 1983, he was elected for Westmorland and Lonsdale after boundary changes, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1983 to 1987.

In his Diaries, the military historian and Tory member of Parliament Alan Clark famously quoted what he claimed was Jopling's "snobby but cutting" dismissal of the ambitious Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine: "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture".[5]

After over 32 years as a member of the House Commons, Jopling stood down at the 1997 general election and was succeeded by Tim Collins. He was absent during the last few weeks of his Commons career as he was severely injured in a go-karting accident in February 1997. He returned to the House on the last day it sat before it dissolved for the election, and was greeted at Prime Minister’s Questions by John Major at his last question session on 20 March.[6]

Jopling was made a life peer as Baron Jopling, of Ainderby Quernhow in the County of North Yorkshire on 5 June 1997.[7] He is a member of the Privy Council and the America All Party Parliamentary Group.

Jopling married Hilary Gail Dickinson in 1958; she was appointed an MBE in 2017. The couple had two sons: Nicholas Jopling and art dealer Jay Jopling. Nicholas was active in the Conservative Party, having contested the Sedgefield constituency at the 1992 general election, but losing to the future Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Nicholas's son Caspar (Jopling's grandson) was married to singer Ellie Goulding from 2019 to 2024.[8]

Jopling is an Honorary member of the Buck's and Royal Automobile clubs. He lives at Ainderby Hall in Thirsk.[1]

• Politics of the United Kingdom
• Members of the House of Lords
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

1. ^ a b c "Jopling, Baron, (Thomas Michael Jopling) (born 10 Dec. 1930)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u22516. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
2. ^ The International Who's Who 2004. Europa Publications. 2004. p. 832. ISBN 9781857432176. Michael Jopling 1930 Ripon, Yorks.
3. ^ Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 2003, vol. 2, p. 1115
4. ^ "Joplings". The Making of Mashamshire.
5. ^ Alan Clark Diaries: In Power 1983–1992 (Wednesday 17 June 1987) 1993 Weidenfeld & Nicolson
6. ^ "Engagements (Hansard, 20 March 1997)". api.parliament.uk.
7. ^ "No. 54789". The London Gazette. 10 June 1997. p. 6745.
8. ^ Kaplan, Ilana (23 February 2024). "Ellie Goulding and Caspar Jopling Separate After 4½ Years of Marriage: 'We Remain the Closest of Friends'". People. Retrieved 24 February 2024.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Jopling