Former cabinet minister Norman Tebbit has been described as a "very effective politician" in his day after he died aged 94 on Monday. Stephen Dorrell worked with Lord Tebbit as a young MP in Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government.

LONDON -- Conservative politician Norman Tebbit, a key ally of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her free-market transformation of Britain, has died at the age of 94, his family said Tuesday. Tebbit’s son William said he died peacefully at home late Monday. No cause was given.

He was a potential prime minister until he left high office to care for his wife, who was seriously hurt in a bombing by the Irish Republican Army.