ANTI-TRIDENT Tory grandee Michael Ancram has died at the aged 79.

A chequered political career took the 13th Marquis of Lothian and hereditary chief of clan Kerr from an eight-month stint as MP for the family pile in Berwickshire and East Lothian between the elections of 1974, on to Edinburgh South in 1979.

Losing that seat in 1987 after leading the implementation of the poll tax in Scotland, he returned five years later representing the Wiltshire seat of Devizes.

Posted to the Northern Ireland Office by John Major, he led the first UK government delegation to enter public discussions with Sinn Fein, and in opposition was one of a handful of Tory “rebels” to vote against Trident renewal in 2007, before retiring to the Lords in 2010.

Posting on X (formerly Twitter), the man who beat him to the Tory leadership in 2001, Iain Duncan-Smith said he was “very saddened,” adding: “I will miss him enormously and my party and country have lost a great public servant.”

SNP First Minister John Swinney offered condolences, describing his as “a courteous and distinguished parliamentarian.”