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Tory grandee Michael Ancram dies at 79
Michael Ancram responds to a standing ovation from the floor after his speech to the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool, October 2003

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.

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