John Cope, Baron Cope of Berkeley

John Ambrose Cope, Baron Cope of Berkeley, PC (born 13 May 1937) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom.

He was educated at Oakham School before qualifying as a Chartered Accountant. He served as Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire from 1974 to 1983. When that constituency was abolished for the 1983 general election, he was returned for the new Northavon constituency, serving in until his defeat in the 1997 general election by the Liberal Democrat Steve Webb. In 1988, he was sworn of the Privy Council.

Cope served as Paymaster-General in John Major's government between 1992 and 1994. Before that, Cope had been a whip, and played a significant part in the pressure put on the BBC to reintroduce Russian-language services during the attempted coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991, apparently returning to a Cabinet meeting to forcefully put the case, at the height of the uncertainty, that the recently-cut services should be reinstated forthwith. He was made a life peer as Baron Cope of Berkeley, of Berkeley in the County of Gloucestershire in 1997. He has served as Opposition Chief Whip in the House of Lords, on the Conservative front bench, from 2001 to 2007, when he was replaced by Baroness Anelay.

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Frederick Corfield	Member of Parliament for South Gloucestershire Feb 1974–1983	Constituency abolished
New constituency	Member of Parliament for Northavon 1983–1997	Succeeded by Steve Webb
Political offices
Preceded by Anthony Berry	Treasurer of the Household 1983–1987	Succeeded by David Hunt
Preceded by The Lord Belstead	Paymaster General 1992–1994	Succeeded by David Heathcoat-Amory