For all but two of his 18 years as a Conservative MP, Sir Nicholas Bonsor was a backbencher, although an influential one. He was an early Eurosceptic at a time when it was clearly a minority position in the party. The issue mattered to him and he considered his first duty was to his country, second to his family and a poor third to the Conservative Party. Unsurprisingly, he often skirmished with the whips.
In 1980 he was the first leader of the European Reform Group, which asserted the rights of national parliaments against the claims of Brussels. It was a forerunner of the European Research Group. Later, in the 1992 parliament, led by John Major, he was a frequent rebel over Maastricht legislation. His