He was a potential prime minister until he left high office to care for his wife, who was seriously hurt in a bombing by the Irish Republican Army.

LONDON -- Conservative politician Norman Tebbit, a key ally of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in her free-market transformation of Britain, has died at the age of 94, his family said Tuesday. Tebbit’s son William said he died peacefully at home late Monday. No cause was given.

Norman Tebbit speaking to the BBC about the 1984 Brighton bombing. Norman Tebbit, who has died at the age of 94, was at the heart of Margaret Thatcher's political revolution. He was a man whose philosophy of self-reliance formed the core of his political beliefs.