Michael Jopling

The Right Honourable The Lord Jopling PC DL
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office 11 June 1983 – 13 June 1987
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Peter Walker
Succeeded by	John MacGregor
Chief Whip of the House of Commons Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury
In office 4 May 1979 – 11 June 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Michael Cocks
Succeeded by	John Wakeham
Lord Commissioner of the Treasury
In office 30 October 1973 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Oscar Murton
Succeeded by	Vacant
Assistant Government Whip
In office 8 November 1971 – 30 October 1973
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Member of Parliament for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Westmorland, 1964 – 1983)
In office 15 October 1964 – 8 April 1997
Preceded by	William Fletcher-Vane
Succeeded by	Tim Collins
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 5 June 1997 Life Peerage
Personal details
Born	Thomas Michael Jopling (1930-12-10) 10 December 1930 Ripon, Yorkshire, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Hilary Dickinson ​ (m. 1958)​
Children	2, including Jay
Alma mater	Durham University Newcastle University

Thomas Michael Jopling, Baron Jopling, PC, DL (born 10 December 1930) is a British politician who sits in the House of Lords as a member of the Conservative Party.

Life and career

Jopling is the son of Mark Bellerby Jopling (1886–1958), of Masham, North Riding of Yorkshire, a partner in Imeson and Jopling (later Jopling, Cawthorn and Blackburn), surveyors, auctioneers and estate agents. He was educated at Cheltenham College and Durham University. He was a farmer and company director and served on the national council of the National Farmers Union. Jopling was a councillor on Thirsk Rural District Council.

Having previously stood unsuccessfully in Wakefield in 1959, Jopling was elected Conservative MP for Westmorland, now in Cumbria, in 1964 and became Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasury from 1979 to 1983. In 1983, he was elected for Westmorland and Lonsdale after boundary changes, and was appointed Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1983 to 1987.

In his Diaries, the military historian and Tory member of Parliament Alan Clark famously quoted what he claimed was Jopling's "snobby but cutting" dismissal of the ambitious Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine: "The trouble with Michael is that he had to buy all his furniture".

After over 32 years as a member of the House Commons, Jopling stood down at the 1997 general election and was succeeded by Tim Collins. He was absent during the last few weeks of his Commons career as he was severely injured in a go-karting accident in February 1997. He returned to the House on the last day it sat before it dissolved for the election, and was greeted at Prime Minister’s Questions by John Major at his last question session on 20 March.

Jopling was made a life peer as Baron Jopling, of Ainderby Quernhow in the County of North Yorkshire on 5 June 1997. He is a member of the Privy Council and the America All Party Parliamentary Group.

Personal life

Jopling married Hilary Gail Dickinson in 1958; she was appointed an MBE in 2017. The couple had two sons: Nicholas Jopling and art dealer Jay Jopling. Nicholas was active in the Conservative Party, having contested the Sedgefield constituency at the 1992 general election, but losing to the future Labour Party leader and Prime Minister, Tony Blair. Nicholas's son Caspar (Jopling's grandson) was married to singer Ellie Goulding from 2019 to 2024.

Jopling is an Honorary member of the Buck's and Royal Automobile clubs. He lives at Ainderby Hall in Thirsk.

See also

• Politics of the United Kingdom
• Members of the House of Lords
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Michael Jopling