The former Conservative minister Sir David Mitchell, who has died aged 86, played a small but important part in the history of his party by acting as an intermediary behind the scenes in the fevered runup to Margaret Thatcher's election as the Tory leader in 1975. He was the parliamentary private secretary to Sir Keith Joseph, initially the favoured candidate among rightwing MPs to succeed Edward Heath, and it was Mitchell who reported privately to the party chief whip that Joseph would not stand, but would propose and support Thatcher instead. This information was relayed two days before Joseph told Thatcher of his decision in person, by which time she had already learned of his intention and decided to run.
Mitchell was subsequently rewarded by Thatcher, in whom she recognised someone who shared the instinctive enthusiasm for small businesses which so shaped her own politics. He founded the Small Business Bureau she set up as opposition leader, and chaired the party's first backbench committee on the subject. In 1979 Thatcher appointed him in her first government as minister for small businesses, with the Grantham grocery very much in mind. He remained in ministerial office until 1988 and left with a compensatory knighthood. He retired in 1997 after 33 years in the House of Commons, as MP for Basingstoke from 1964 and after boundary changes North West Hampshire from 1983.
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