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Malcolm Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness

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Malcolm Ian Sinclair, 20th Earl of Caithness, PC (born 3 November 1948) is a British Conservative politician and member of the House of Lords as one of the remaining hereditary peers. He is also chief of Clan Sinclair. The Earl was educated at Marlborough College and Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester.

Lord Caithness served as a House of Lords government whip under Margaret Thatcher from 1984 to 1985. He then moved to the Department of Transport as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, serving until 1986 when he became a Minister of State at the Home Office. In 1988 he was once again moved, this time to be Minister of State at the Department of Environment. In 1989, he became Paymaster-General.

In 1990, Lord Caithness was again shuffled to the Foreign Office as a Minister of State, and then in 1992 back to the Department of Transport. He married Diana Caroline Coke (1953–1994) in 1975. In January 1994, Lord Caithness resigned from the Government following the suicide of his wife, Diana Countess of Caithness, who according to the BBC "shot herself in despair at his relationship with another woman."

With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Lord Caithness, along with most other hereditary peers, lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was however elected as one of the 90 representative peers to remain in the House of Lords under the provisions of the Act.

He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1990. He is the Chief Executive of the Clan Sinclair Trust. He is an opponent of fractional-reserve banking.

References

  1. "The Major Scandal Sheet". BBC News. 27 October 1998. Retrieved 9 July 2010.
  2. Hansard archives
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded byJames Sinclair Earl of Caithness
1965—
Incumbent
Heir:
Alexander Sinclair, Lord Berriedale
Political offices
Preceded byPeter Brooke Paymaster-General
1989–1990
Succeeded byRichard Ryder
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