Robert Key (politician)

Simon Robert Key (22 April 1945 – 3 February 2023) was a British Conservative politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Salisbury from 1983 to 2010. He was also a former teacher and served as Chair of Governors at Salisbury Cathedral School.

Robert Key
Official portrait, 2005
Minister for Sport
In office 10 April 1992 – 27 May 1993
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Robert Atkins
Succeeded by	Iain Sproat
Member of Parliament for Salisbury
In office 9 June 1983 – 12 April 2010
Preceded by	Michael Hamilton
Succeeded by	John Glen
Personal details
Born	Simon Robert Key (1945-04-22)22 April 1945 Plymouth, Devon, England
Died	3 February 2023(2023-02-03) (aged 77) Wiltshire, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Susan Irvine ​ (m. 1968)​
Children	4
Parent	Maurice Key (father)
Alma mater	Clare College, Cambridge

Early life

Key was born in Plymouth, the son of Maurice Key, afterwards Bishop of Truro.^{[1][circular reporting?]} At the age of 10, he was part of a school walk on Swanage Beach in Dorset where he and six friends discovered an old wartime mine which detonated; only Key and one other boy survived.^[2][3]

He attended Salisbury Cathedral School, then independent Sherborne School. He studied economics at Clare College, Cambridge, receiving an MA and CertEd.

He taught at Loretto School in Musselburgh from 1967 to 1969, then taught economics at Harrow School from 1969 to 1983.

Political career

Robert Key contested the Holborn and St Pancras South seat in 1979.

At the age of 38, he became the Member of Parliament for Salisbury in 1983, upon the retirement of Conservative Michael Hamilton MP. He was returned as the MP for Salisbury in 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001 and 2005 until his own retirement in 2010.

Between 1983 and 1984, Key was the Parliamentary Private Secretary to former Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath MP, who himself retired to Salisbury. According to the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, it was Key who suggested that Heath look at a house in Salisbury - Arundells - when it came onto the market in 1985. Heath bought the house and lived there until his death in 2005.^[4]

Key became the Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities in the Department of the Environment (now DEFRA) in 1990, serving until 1992, and setting up the Inner Cities Religious Council^[5] in 1991.

He was the Minister for Sport at the Department of National Heritage (now Culture, Media and Sport) from 1992 to 1993 and then was Minister for Roads and Traffic from 1993 to 1994 during the tenure of Sir John Major MP.^[6]

In opposition, Key served as a front-bench spokesman during the leaderships of William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. In 2001, he was the shadow minister for Science and Energy, and in July 2002, he was appointed as the shadow minister for International Development. He stood down from this position in June 2003, returning to the backbenches but retaining his membership of the Defence Select Committee.^[6]

On 2 December 2009, Key announced his decision to stand down at the next general election.^[7]

Personal life

Robert Key was the son of Maurice Key, who was the 10th Bishop of Truro from 1960 to 1973, as well as the Bishop of Sherborne from 1947 until 1960.^[6]

Key married Susan Irvine in 1968 in Perth. They had two sons (one of whom died in infancy) and two daughters and lived in Harnham.^[6] He was a committed choral singer and member of the General Synod of the Church of England.^[6]

Key died in Wiltshire^[8] on 3 February 2023, at the age of 77.^[6][9]