Education
Rees was educated at Stowe and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a degree in history.
politician barrister Chief Secretary
Rees was educated at Stowe and Christ Church, Oxford, where he took a degree in history.
He was Chief Secretary to the Treasury from 1983 until 1985. After National Service with the Scots Guards from 1945 to 1948, he was called to the bar in 1953 at the Inner Temple, and became a Queen's Counsel in 1969. When Williams died in 1965, Rees was the Conservative candidate in the consequent by-election, losing by a similarly large margin.
At the 1966 election, he stood in the more promising Labour-held seat of Liverpool West Derby, but lost again.
In Edward Heath"s government, he served from 1972 to 1973 as ary Private Secretary to the Solicitor General, Michael Havers. In 1979, when the Conservative Party entered government under Margaret Thatcher, he became Minister of State at the Treasury, working to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Geoffrey Howe, before becoming Minister for Trade in 1981.
After the 1983 United Kingdom general election he was appointed to the cabinet as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, working to the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson. He was made Privy Counsellor the same year.
Unlike most other Chief Secretaries to the Treasury, Peter Rees never went further within the Cabinet, leaving the post in the September 1985 cabinet reshuffle.
He retired from at the 1987 general election, aged 61, and on 16 November 1987 was created a life peer as Baron Rees, of Goytre in the County of Gwent and sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative.
45th United Kingdom. 46th United Kingdom. 47th United Kingdom.
48th United Kingdom. 49th United Kingdom.
He was Conservative Member of (Member of Parliament) for Dover and Deal from 1974 to 1983 and Member of Parliament for Dover from 1970 to 1974 and 1983 to 1987.