Tributes to long-serving Walsall MP after death aged 79

Sir Richard Shepherd, who was Conservative MP for Aldridge-Brownhills for more than 35 years, died on Monday.

He was one of the Maastricht rebels who had the party whip removed by former prime minister Sir John Major for voting against the treaty which created the European Union.

Known as something of a maverick libertarian, he was also president of Walsall football club.

Valerie Vaz, Labour MP for Walsall South, led tributes in the House of Commons, saying he was a great support to her when she was first elected in 2010.

"He was a fantastic parliamentarian in the constituency next-door to mine," she said. "He was very kind to me when I first came in here."

His fellow Maastricht rebel, former Ludlow MP Christopher Gill, describe Sir Richard as one of the finest parliamentarians of his generation.

"He understood the real meaning of parliament, its procedures, and what he was really supposed to be doing, which is to hold the Government to account," he said.

"Richard, who did this without fear or favour, was one of those relatively rare Members of Parliament prepared to do that."

Ex-Walsall North MP Richard Winnick also paid tribute.

"We were in different parties, and over the years we had some large disagreements as we were miles apart on economic issues," said the former Labour MP.

But he added that he greatly admired Sir Richard's refusal to give into the whips during the Margaret Thatcher years.

"He defended the sovereignty of parliament and took a courageous stand on more than one occasion," said Mr Winnick. "He will be remembered with respect both locally and nationally."

His brother, John Shepherd added: “As a family our hearts are broken today but we take great reassurance from the fact that his was a life well lived and that he was a real gold medal winner in so many ways.”

Sir Richard infuriated Margaret Thatcher when he attempted to loosen elements of the Official Secrets Act to better protect whistleblowers.

The then-prime minister imposed a three-line whip ordering Conservative MPs to vote against his private member’s bill.

The whip was restored by Major after four months following the Maastricht rebellion, but the backbencher infuriated the beleaguered PM again when he defied a three-line whip over the Government’s handling of the Scott report on the arms-to-Iraq scandal in 1996.

The Scott report had criticised the Government for prosecuting the Matrix Churchill engineering company for supplying arms to Iraq, in breach of sanctions, when it had been doing so with what it believed to be ministerial approval.

The Prime Minister had turned the issue into a vote of confidence, but Sir Richard was so angry he voted against the Government. The Major administration survived with a majority of just one.

He was held his seat with a reduced majority of 2,500 during Tony Blair's New Labour landslide in 1997.

Supported by the new Labour MP for Dudley North, Ross Cranston, he introduced a private members' bill calling for protection of whistleblowers. Unusually for a bill brought about by an opposition backbench MP, it became law when it was incorporated into the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.

He stood for election to be Speaker of the House of Commons on two occasions. In 2000 he received 136 votes, coming third out of 11 candidates who were beaten by eventual winner Michael Martin. He stood again in 2009, but was eliminated in the first round with just 14 votes.

Born in Aberdeen, the son of Davida and Alfred Shepherd, Sir Richard grew up in London, studying at London School of Economics and later Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.

A friend and former assistant to the longstanding Conservative backbench Eurosceptic Teddy Taylor, Sir Richard contested the Nottingham East constituency at general the February 1974 General Election, before taking Aldridge-Brownhills from Labour in 1979.

He retained the seat at eight subsequent elections, before standing down at the 2015 General Election.

Before entering parliament, he set up a family grocery business Shepherd Foods in 1970, reputedly the first convenience-store chain to offer late-night shopping.

During his early years as an MP, he worked in the mornings from a backroom at the firm’s Drury Lane office, assisted by his sister, Davida.

In 1972 he founded a more upmarket grocery company, Partridges, in the Sloane Street area of Chelsea, run by his brother, John, which received a royal warrant in 1994.

He was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours list.

Sir Richard never married. As well as his brother John, he also leaves a sister Davida.