Gerald Nabarro

Sir Gerald David Nunes Nabarro (29 June 1913 – 18 November 1973) was a wealthy and flamboyant British Conservative Party politician of the 1950s and 1960s with a high public profile and a reputation for taking maverick political stances.

Early life

Nabarro was born in Willesden Green, the son of an unsuccessful shopkeeper. He was born to a prominent Sephardi Jewish family but later converted to Christianity. He was educated at schools run by the London County Council, belying his later image as an aristocrat. On leaving school in 1930 at the age of 16 he enlisted in the army, in which he served for seven years, rising to the rank of Sergeant. In 1937 he left the army to work as a machine-hand, being swiftly promoted to be factory manager.

Using his experience he set up a saw milling company which made him a good living, and allowed him to go into company management in the engineering and road transport fields. Nabarro was also a member of the Royal Artillery Territorials and of the Royal Ordnance.

Entry to Parliament

At the 1945 general election, Nabarro stood as the Conservative candidate in the Labour-held West Bromwich constituency. The seat was comfortably held by Labour's John Dugdale, with a swing on 18.6%, much higher than the national average of 10%.

In the general election of 1950, Nabarro was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kidderminster, Worcestershire which he held until 1964. He characterised himself as an old-style Tory: he opposed entry to what is now the European Union, was a proponent of capital punishment, and supported Enoch Powell following the latter's controversial Rivers of Blood Speech. Even five years earlier, on 5 April 1963, while appearing on Any Questions?, he said "How would you feel if your daughter wanted to marry a big buck nigger with the prospect of coffee-coloured grandchildren?", remarks which were excised from a repeat of the programme the following week. He was also instantly identifiable due to his much-lampooned handlebar moustache. He sat on the first ever football pools panel to decide the outcome of abandoned matches.

Political activities

Among his major political achievements was a private member's bill on pollution and smog control that eventually became the Clean Air Act 1956. He also pushed to bring electricity to remote villages and hamlets that in the early 1950s would otherwise have gone without, and he was knighted in 1963. However, prolonged ill-health and a heart attack in the early 1960s led him to retire from politics when the 1964 general election was called.

By 1966, Nabarro had recovered from the immediate illness, and was given a clean bill of health by his doctor. He was selected as Conservative candidate for the safer constituency of South Worcestershire, neighbouring his old constituency, after the previous MP had retired. He duly won the seat in the general election of that year , and represented it until his death. No by-election was held after his death; the seat was still vacant when Parliament was dissolved on 8 February 1974 for the general election later that month.

Controversial trial

In 1971 Nabarro was the subject of what was then a sensational trial in the wake of an incident when he and his company secretary, Margaret Mason, drove the wrong way around a roundabout. Nabarro insisted that his secretary had been driving at the time, however, and although subsequently acquitted of the driving charge, popular opinion was that he had indeed been driving. He suffered two strokes in the course of the re-trial and his political career was ended by the scandal. He died aged 60 a few months after his acquittal.

An earlier secretary of Nabarro was Christine Holman, later wife of another scandal-ridden Conservative MP, Neil Hamilton. Nabarro's distinctive appearance led to his picture being frequently used by the Monty Python team. He was also mentioned by the character Eric Praline in the Fish Licence sketch as apparently owning a prawn, called Simon.

External links

• Nabarro is mocked on the cover of Private Eye
• Critical article from the Guardian
• Portraits of Gerald Nabarro at the National Portrait Gallery, London