A colourful politician who defected from John Major's Conservative government to join the Liberal Democrats has died.
Peter Thurnham represented the Bolton North East constituency from 1983 to 1997.
He made headlines after leaving the Tories to join the Lib Dems in October 1996, towards the end of the Major government, over its refusal to hold inquiries into allegations of sleaze.
He did not contest his Bolton seat at the 1997 general election and was succeeded by Labour's David Crausby, who remains the constituency's MP. Mr Thurnham died at his home in Bentham, near Lancaster, on Saturday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 69.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Peter Thurnham RIP
The Manchester Evening News reports the death of a former Lib Dem MP:
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I only met him once, and didn’t get much of a sense of his “colourful” politics; rather, he struck me as low-key, unassuming and thoroughly decent. I spent an afternoon canvassing with him at, IIRC, the Wirral South by-election – he seemed just a really nice chap, and one of the least self-important MPs you could imagine. He went down very well on the doorstop, too ;-)
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