Former Tory minister Lord St John of Fawsley dies aged 82

As Norman St John-Stevas, he served in the government of Edward Heath as minister for education and the arts and was a member of Margaret Thatcher’s first Cabinet as Leader of the Commons.

He was sacked by Lady Thatcher in 1981, as she began her clear-out of the so-called “wets” in her administration and was created a life peer in 1987.

During his brief Cabinet tenure, he made a lasting mark on the House of Commons by creating the select committee system, which allows panels of backbenchers to interrogate ministers and launch inquiries into issues of political controversy.

But he was never what Mrs Thatcher termed “one of us”, opposing the harshness of her monetarist economic policies and reportedly coining the nickname “Tina” from the initials of her mantra “There is no alternative”.

After leaving government, he remained on the Tory backbenches, but also devoted himself to the worlds of academia and the arts, serving as chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission and master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.

He was a prolific author and a prominent Catholic, a chairman of Booker Prize judges and the editor of the definitive edition of the literary works of the Victorian constitutionalist Walter Bagehot.

The Conservative Leader of the Lords, Lord Strathclyde, said: “He was a great parliamentarian and will be missed by all who knew him in both Houses of Parliament.

“He was a colourful, deeply spiritual and wise figure whose greatest legacy to the House of Commons remains the select committee, which he created in 1979 as Leader of the House.”

A spokesman for his family said he died at his home in London on Friday after a short illness.