Political Career
Lord Balniel was Conservative Member of Parliament for Hertford from 1955 to 1974, and for Welwyn and Hatfield from February to September 1974. He was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1955 to 1957, and to the Minister of Housing and Local Government from 1957 to 1960. He was opposition front-bench spokesman on health and social security from 1967 to 1970. In the Heath government, he served as Minister of State for Defence from 1970 to 1972 and for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs from 1972 to 1974.
In the October 1974 general election, Lord Balniel lost his seat to Labour's Helene Hayman. On 24 January 1975 he was created a life peer as Baron Balniel, of Pitcorthie in the County of Fife, and so entered the House of Lords. He inherited the earldoms from his father on 13 December 1975. Following the House of Lords Act 1999, which expelled most hereditary peers from the upper house, the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres has been able to continue sitting in the House of Lords by virtue of his life peerage.
Read more about this topic: Robert Lindsay, 29th Earl Of Crawford
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