Lord Young: tributes paid after death of Cabinet Minister at 90

Lord Young of Graffham, a high-powered businessman who turned his considerable City talents to good use as a Cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, has died aged 90.

A Conservative Party spokesperson confirmed the death of the peer, who became secretary of state for employment in 1985, before being appointed secretary of state for trade and industry after the 1987 election.

At the latter department, he left an overwhelming impression that he wanted to run his department as a private enterprise, and he quickly acquired a reputation as the "Mr Entrepreneur of Whitehall".

In the Cabinet as in business, Lord Young rarely let up on a gruelling routine of international travel - and was seen as the warm-up man for UK plc.

Lord Young of Graffham, David Young holds his insignia of member of the Order of the Companions of Honour after it was presented to him by the Prince of Wales in 2015 (Photo by John Stillwell - WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Lord Young was a "get-things-done" man, who did not like to see political niceties and protocol obstruct what he regarded as perfectly sound and honourable business practices.

And yet, despite his presence as a key figure in the Cabinet during Mrs Thatcher's string of privatisations during the 1980s, the peer nevertheless later attacked the John Major government's decision to privatise British Coal and British Rail.

David Ivor Young was born on February 27, 1932, and educated at Christ's College, Finchley and University College, London. His business acumen quickly came to the fore.

In his early 20s, Lord Young was already an executive with Great Universal Stores, and soon became chairman of a number of manufacturing and property companies.

He was rapidly becoming well-known nationally and beyond as a City man with flair and drive.

In 1979, when the Tories came back into power, Lord Young was appointed industrial and special adviser to the Department of Industry, and in 1982 he became chairman of the Manpower Services Commission.

Two years later, Mrs Thatcher head-hunted him and he entered the House of Lords and the Cabinet at the same time as minister without portfolio - before progressing onto his two more senior roles.

In 1989, when he became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party during the latter months of Mrs Thatcher's premiership, before leaving the political scene to become chairman of Cable and Wireless in 1990.

At the Department of Trade and Industry, Lord Young enjoyed limited success with a tangle of issues: the villainy of crooked fund manager Barlow Clowes; the vexed debate whether Kuwaiti interests should effectively subsume British Petroleum; the climbdown over the brewers' monopoly; and criticism for declining to publish a damning report into the takeover of House of Fraser by the Fayed brothers.

He did cross the bridge between the department, which regulated the UK telephone scene, and Cable and Wireless - one of the greatest beneficiaries of the development of the market.

Lord Young remained an influential and well-regarded voice on business and politics throughout the following decades, serving as an enterprise adviser to Conservative prime minister David Cameron while also being honoured in 2015 with appointment as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour.

Despite retiring from the Lords in early 2022, he continued to contribute to public debates with his final article for The Telegraph newspaper published on December 7.

Former Cabinet minister Brandon Lewis paid tribute, tweeting: "Such sad news. A lovely man who always had time for new MPs and inexperienced ministers to pick his brain."