Geoffrey Rippon

Geoffrey Rippon
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office 25 July 1970 – 5 November 1972
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Anthony Barber
Succeeded by	John Davies (businessman)

(Aubrey) Geoffrey Frederick Rippon, Baron Rippon of Hexham, PC, (28 May 1924 – 28 January 1997) was a British Conservative politician. He was Chairman of the European-Atlantic Group.

The son of the Somerset cricketer Sydney Rippon, Geoffrey Rippon was educated at King's College, Taunton, and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he was president of the University Conservative Association. He was called to the Bar in 1948 and was Mayor of Surbiton 1951-52 and a member of the London County Council from 1952. After unsuccessfully contesting the seat of Shoreditch and Finsbury in both 1950 and 1951, he became MP for Norwich South in 1955. In 1964 he was defeated, but moved to the constituency of Hexham in Northumberland at the 1966 general election and remained MP there until retiring in 1987. Among his posts in the Shadow Cabinet was that of Shadow Defence Secretary from 1969 to 1970.

In 1970 he became Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster under Edward Heath, and being in favour of the Common Market was given the responsibility of negotiating Britain's entry into it. In 1972 he moved to become Secretary of State for the Environment. During his tenure the Department of the Environment was housed on Marsham Street in tower blocks of appalling ugliness, nicknamed 'the three ugly sisters'. Rippon is supposed to have commented to his civil servants that the view from the top floor was the best in London, as one could not see the towers themselves.

He was at one time a prominent member of the Conservative Monday Club, for whom he authored a booklet entitled Right Angle, and was guest-of-honour at their Annual Dinner in 1970. The Club was, however, divided on the EEC (European Community) issue, and at their conference in October 1971 members moved and carried a resolution opposing Britain's entry.

From 1979 to 1982, Rippon was President of the European Documentation and Information Centre (CEDI).

He was created a life peer in 1987, as Baron Rippon of Hexham, of Hesleyside in the County of Northumberland.

References

• Copping, Robert, The Story of The Monday Club - The First Decade, (Foreword by George Pole), Current Affairs Information Service, Ilford, Essex, April 1972, (P/B).

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Geoffrey Rippon

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Henry Strauss	Member of Parliament for Norwich South 1955–1964	Succeeded by Christopher Norwood
Preceded by Rupert Speir	Member of Parliament for Hexham 1966–1987	Succeeded by Alan Amos
Political offices
Preceded by Tony Benn	Minister of Technology 1970	Succeeded by John Davies
Preceded by Anthony Barber	Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1970–1972	Succeeded by John Davies
Preceded by Peter Walker	Secretary of State for the Environment 1972–1974	Succeeded by Anthony Crosland
Preceded by Sir Alec Douglas-Home	Shadow Foreign Secretary 1974–1975	Succeeded by Reginald Maudling