In 1979, the new recruits to the Tory Parliamentary Party were an interesting and talented bunch. They included John Major, a future Prime Minister, eight other men who eventually joined the Cabinet, Matthew Parris – and Richard Needham, who has just published his memoirs. He was as exotic as any of his contemporaries. The holder of an Irish peerage – the Earldom of Kilmorey, which neither disbarred him from the Commons nor entitled him to sit in the Lords – he also descended from two Jewish Lord Mayors of London.
At various stages, several of his ancestors had been significantly rich. Yet they lost everything, not in any spectacular crash, but out of sheer inability to adapt to current economic circumstances. Richard wanted to rebuild at least some of the family fortunes, partly to subsidise his own political career.
