Paul Keetch was instrumental in forming the Liberal Democrats’ opposition to the Iraq war in 2003. Although he was a military historian and represented a seat with a military constituency — Hereford, home to the SAS — as the party’s defence spokesman he helped to convince Charles Kennedy, the party leader, that backing the war would be a mistake.
Mark Pursey, his former colleague, recalled that until this point many senior Lib Dem MPs perceived there to be less political risk in supporting Tony Blair’s government than opposing it, especially so soon after the 9/11 attacks in the US. “Charles Kennedy provided the popular touch; Paul provided the much-needed grit,” Pursey said.
Speaking in the Commons in February 2003, Keetch articulated the concerns that he and his party were feeling. “The case for war has not yet been proved by this government,” Keetch declared, insisting that “we must not allow multilateral treaties, international law or even the UN and Nato to become collateral damage in the legitimate desire to disarm Iraq”.
While even the party’s hawks came to thank Keetch for helping them to carve out a distinctive voice on Iraq, there were times when he was a liability: he was criticised in the MPs’ expenses scandal; was a rare Lib Dem voice in the pro-Brexit campaign; voted against the ban on hunting; ate banned British beef in France; and had a personal life that was played out in the tabloid press.
Beefily built, pink-faced and surprisingly light-voiced, Keetch was a hands-on MP in more ways than one, rarely missing an opportunity to press the flesh. Although he was a popular face in Hereford, he was prone to slips of etiquette, especially in the presence of female assistants at conferences.
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Paul Stuart Keetch was born in Hereford in 1961, the youngest of five children of John and his wife, Peggy (née Hughes). He studied at Hereford High School for Boys and then sixth-form college, joining the Liberal Party while a teenager. In 1983 he served as agent for the party’s candidate in the general election and was elected to Hereford city council, at 21 the youngest city councillor in the country.
Within two years he had resigned his council seat and taken a post with Midland Bank before joining a company selling water tanks. Increasingly he was being drawn towards Westminster and, after a period as a consultant, he was selected to fight his home constituency, then a Conservative marginal, in the 1997 election.
Keetch was elected to parliament at his first attempt, the anti-Tory landslide giving him 6,648 votes over the Conservative incumbent, although in 2001 and 2005 his majority would be cut to 968 and 962 votes respectively.
Meanwhile, in 1991 he married Claire Baker, who became his constituency case worker. They were divorced in 2011, after pictures of him embracing the wife of an SAS soldier appeared in the papers in 2009 (he “dared to sin”, they reported). He is survived by their son, William, who is a student.
Keetch was not only a colleague of Charles Kennedy (obituary, June 3, 2015), but also a close friend of his party leader. Keetch suffered a cardiac arrest in 2007 while on a flight to a Nato meeting in the US. He was saved because there was an automated external defibrillator (AED) that was used to resuscitate him. The experience led him to campaign for AEDs to be compulsory on aircraft. He had by this time announced his retirement from politics.
“Although a popular face in Hereford, he was prone to slips of etiquette
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During the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2008 Keetch emerged among the highest claimants — “never knowingly underspent” was how one newspaper described his long list of taxpayer- funded purchases. He was also criticised for not declaring overseas trips paid for by foreign governments.
He had been out of parliament for six years when the country was given a vote on its membership of the EU. This galvanised Keetch, a man who was not without his quirks as well as being a rare Brexit voice in the Lib Dems. To him there was no contradiction in being a Lib Dem and pro-Brexit. Last year he allegedly threatened a former girlfriend that he would post intimate pictures of her online and arrange to have her cats killed. By then he was not a well man.
Keetch, who founded the all-party parliamentary cider group, enjoyed building model warships. As one of the select committee scrutinising the Armed Forces Bill pointed out when he was appointed to its ranks in 2001, this meant that he was better qualified than many of the committee’s members.
Paul Keetch, MP for Hereford, 1997-2010, was born on May 21, 1961. He died after a long illness on May 24, 2017, aged 56