Peter Kirk (English politician)

Sir Peter Michael Kirk, (18 May 1928 – 17 April 1977) was a British Conservative politician and a junior minister in the governments of Alec Douglas-Home and Edward Heath.

The elder son of Kenneth Escott Kirk (later Bishop of Oxford), he was educated at Marlborough and at Trinity College, Oxford, where he was President of the Union.

At the 1955 general election, he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesend, defeating outgoing MP Sir Richard Acland, who had left the Labour Party to stand as an independent candidate. Kirk was re-elected in Gravesend at the 1959 election, but lost his seat at the 1964 general election to Labour's Albert Murray.

In February 1965, the former Conservative Chancellor and Deputy Prime Minister Rab Butler was elevated to the peerage and thereby gave up his parliamentary seat in Saffron Walden. Kirk was the successful candidate at the March 1965 by-election, and retained the seat until his death.

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