Hugh Rossi

Sir Hugh Rossi FKC
Minister of State for Social Security
In office 5 January 1981 – 12 June 1983
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Reg Prentice
Succeeded by	Rhodes Boyson
Minister of State for Northern Ireland
In office 7 May 1979 – 5 January 1981
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Don Concannon
Succeeded by	Adam Butler
Member of Parliament for Hornsey and Wood Green Hornsey (1966–1983)
In office 31 March 1966 – 9 April 1992
Preceded by	Muriel Gammans
Succeeded by	Barbara Roche
Personal details
Born	Hugh Alexis Louis Rossi (1927-06-21)21 June 1927 London, England
Died	14 April 2020(2020-04-14) (aged 92) London, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Philomena Jennings ​ ​ (m. 1955; died 2018)​
Children	5
Alma mater	King's College London

Sir Hugh Alexis Louis Rossi, KCSG, KHS, FKC (21 June 1927 – 14 April 2020) was a British Conservative Party politician. He was educated at Finchley Catholic Grammar School and King's College London (LLB).

Background

Rossi was born in London in 1927; his father, Gaudenzio Rossi, came to London in 1919 after serving in the Italian Army in the First World War. He was educated at Finchley Catholic High School and went onto King's College London. He became a solicitor.

Political career

Rossi was elected a councillor on Hornsey Borough Council 1956–65, serving as deputy mayor 1964–65, and on the successor London Borough of Haringey from 1964. He was also a Middlesex County Councillor 1961–65. Rossi was Member of Parliament (MP) for Hornsey from 1966 to 1983, and (after boundary changes) for Hornsey and Wood Green, 1983 to 1992.

A junior minister in the governments of Edward Heath and Margaret Thatcher, he was on the 'One Nation' wing of the party. Michael Heseltine praised his social housing ideas (especially Right to Buy) as fundamental to Conservative general election successes. He was expecting to be made Minister of State for Housing on the back of his work after the Conservatives won the 1979 general election but instead was made a Minister of State for Northern Ireland. The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher wrongly believed that his disappointment was a worry that he could not carry out this role as a Catholic, and arranged a meeting between Rossi and the Archbishop of Westminster Basil Hume to reassure him that there was no conflict of interest.

He retired in 1992, after which the Conservative Party lost the Hornsey and Wood Green seat, when his successor as Conservative candidate, Andrew Boff, was defeated by the Labour Party's Barbara Roche.

Rossi was knighted in Thatcher's 1983 Dissolution Honours List.

Personal life and death

Grave of Sir Hugh Rossi in Highgate Cemetery

In 1955, Rossi married Philomena Jennings, and they had five children.

Rossi died in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames on 14 April 2020, at the age of 92; he was buried on the western side of Highgate Cemetery.

References

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Hugh Rossi