Roger Bootle-Wilbraham, 7th Baron Skelmersdale

The Right Honourable The Lord Skelmersdale Lord Skelmersdale
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Social Security
In office 13 June 1987 – 25 July 1988
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Michael Portillo
Succeeded by	Edwina Currie
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Environment
In office 10 September 1986 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Angela Rumbold
Succeeded by	Christopher Chope
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health and Social Security
In office 13 June 1987 – 25 July 1988
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Michael Portillo
Succeeded by	Edwina Currie
Lord-in-waiting Government Whip
In office 9 January 1981 – 10 September 1986
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	The Lord Trefgarne
Succeeded by	The Lord Hesketh
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 11 March 1975 Hereditary Peerage
Preceded by	6th Baron Skelmersdale
Personal details
Born	2 April 1945
Political party	Conservative

Roger Bootle-Wilbraham, 7th Baron Skelmersdale (born 2 April 1945) is a British politician and Conservative member of the House of Lords.

He was educated at Eton College.

Since 1972, Lord Skelmersdale and his wife Christine have owned and operated Broadleigh Gardens, a horticultural centre at Barr House, Bishops Hull, Taunton, Somerset.

Lord Skelmersdale succeeded to the peerage in 1973 on the death of his father Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, 6th Baron Skelmersdale. He was made a House of Lords whip in Margaret Thatcher's government in 1981, holding that position until 1986. He then moved to the Department of Environment as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and then to the Department of Health and Social Security in 1987 before that department was split in 1988.

Lord Skelmersdale continued at the Department of Social Security until 1989 when he was assigned to the Northern Ireland Office, serving until the end of Thatcher's premiership in November 1990. He was not reappointed by John Major.

With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Lord Skelmersdale along with almost all other hereditary peers lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was however elected as one of the ninety-two elected hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords pending completion of House of Lords reform.

Lord Skelmersdale was, as of 2006, a Conservative Shadow Minister for the Department for Work and Pensions as a member of David Cameron's front bench team, however, he did not become a minister in the coalition Cameron ministry starting in 2010.

Lord Skelmesdale is a bridge player and a member of the all party parliamentary bridge group.

External links

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