Tory MP known for his outspoken views

Born: August 28 1942;

Died February 18 2019

JOHN Carlisle, who has died aged 76, was an outspoken Conservative MP for Luton, once described by Alex Salmond as “one of the most offensive men in the House of Commons, with a long track record of repugnant remarks”.

Carlisle’s opinions could certainly have been characterised as robust: he was in favour of capital and corporal punishment, the gun lobby and the tobacco industry (for whom he later worked) and militantly opposed to feminism, gay rights, the EU, the nanny state and, above all, sanctions against the South African government when the apartheid regime was still in place.

This led him to be described as the “MP for Bloemfontein West”, though he denied that he actually approved of apartheid and threatened to sue anyone who suggested that he had ever received money for his stance; John Major, with whom he shared an office when they were first elected to the Commons, described him as “a persistent and outspoken opponent” who “took pleasure in offending every politically correct code that existed”.

John Russell Carlisle was born in Bedfordshire on August 28 1942 and educated at Bedford School and St Lawrence College in Ramsgate before going on the the College of Estate Management in London. He began his career as a grain trader with a firm based at Sandy in Bedfordshire, going on to become a member of the London Corn Exchange and to work as a consultant for the commodities giant Louis Dreyfus plc. From 1974-76 he was the chairman of the Mid Bedfordshire Conservative Association, before being selected as the candidate for Luton West.

After boundary changes, he continued from 1983 as the MP for Luton North. From 1981-84 he was chairman of the Conservative Parliamentary Committee on Sport, and vice-chairman of the All Party Football Committee from 1987 until he left the Commons in 1997. From 1985-88 he served on the Commons Select Committee on Agriculture. His interest in sport – he was a member of MCC and the RFU and a governor of the Sports Aid Foundation, as well as a keen shot – led him to support the rebel English cricket team which toured South Africa in 1982, and he described the ban imposed on them by the Test and County Cricket Board as “a sad day for international cricket”. Besides his backing for South Africa, he was a strong supporter of Gibraltar, and served a term as treasurer of the Paliamentary Anglo-Gibraltar Group.

Carlisle decided not to contest his constituency at the 1997 general election (it was subsequently won by Labour with a 17 per cent swing) and instead went to work as the executive director for government affairs for the Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association. A non-smoker himself, he likened his position to that of a lawyer, arguing that even unpopular causes deserved defending. He left the role in 2001.

Carlisle was a better PR man than his abrasive reputation would have suggested; in person, he was affable and gossipy. But his advocacy of tobacco sponsorship of sport – something he had supported while in Parliament – and fight against a ban on advertising could do little more than hold the fort, and the ban came in after he left the TMA.

He recovered from a serious heart attack in retirement, though he complained that he had been put on a diet of steamed fish and orange juice. He married, in 1964, Anthea May, with whom he had two daughters.

ANDREW MCKIE