Career Cut Short
From 1983 Penhaligon headed the Liberal by-election unit which planned the campaigns in individual seats. At the Liberal Assembly in September 1984 he was chosen as President-elect of the Liberal Party (the first sitting MP to be elected to the post), and served as Party President from 1985 to 1986. This carried with it the job of presiding over the Liberal Assembly at the end of his term, which saw a party split over defence policy and whether to support nuclear weapons; Penhaligon did not intervene, something he regretted afterwards.
He was appointed as Chief spokesman on the economy from 1985; though admitting he had no financial experience, he challenged the Conservative policy on privatisation and monetarism. He was a central figure in planning the Alliance general election campaign when he was killed in a car crash in his constituency. At 6:45am on 22 December 1986, he was travelling to a constituency engagement when a van skidded on an icy road and hit his Rover SD1 car near Truck Fork, Probus, Cornwall. Penhaligon died instantly. The van driver was not prosecuted for the accident.
From July 1986, Penhaligon had employed Matthew Taylor, a University of Oxford graduate, as his research assistant on the economy; Taylor was selected to follow him as Liberal candidate for Truro and was duly returned in the Truro by-election, 1987. Penhaligon's widow wrote his biography in 1989; his son Matthew is an active member of the Liberal Democrats who was the party's candidate for the Mayoralty of Hackney in May 2006.
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