Funeral held for Norman Tebbit at Bury St Edmunds cathedral

The funeral service for former Conservative cabinet minister Norman Tebbit has been held at the cathedral in the town where he lived.

Lord Tebbit died at his home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, on 7 July, aged 94.

He was injured in an IRA bombing in Brighton in 1984, which left his wife Margaret permanently paralysed.

Tributes were paid during the ceremony from members of Lord Tebbit’s family. A private service is being held afterwards.

The funeral was live streamed online and included hymns sung by a choir.

His daughter Alison said that he had loved Bury St Edmunds and thanked carers who had looked after Lord Tebbit and his wife.

She described him as “gentle, kind, sometimes ferociously passionate and uncompromising in pursuit of his ideals”.

Son William spoke of his father’s love of cricket.

Former Conservative party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who followed Lord Tebbit as MP for Chingford in north-east London, read a religious passage.

Sir Iain called Lord Tebbit a “great servant to his country” who had a “wonderfully wicked sense of humour”.

Other Conservative party figures attending the funeral included Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, Sir Graham Brady, Lord Deben and Baroness Therese Coffey.

Lord Michael Dobbs gave a eulogy during the service and said the Brighton bombing had left Lord Tebbit injured “far more seriously than many know” and had left him in pain “every day”.

The explosion at the Grand Hotel in Brighton during the annual Conservative Party conference in 1984 killed five people and seriously injured 31.

Lord Dobbs said Lord Tebbit decided to leave politics to care for his wife and described his devotion to Margaret as “total”.

Lord Tebbit served as a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher’s government and throughout the 1980s he worked as the chairman of the Conservative Party.

A loyal ally of Thatcher, Lord Tebbit backed her agenda, bringing in laws designed to curb union power – including making them liable for damages if they committed illegal acts.