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Sir Patrick Cormack today announced his retirement form Parliament, having served as an MP for almost 40 years. He will be a great loss to the Commons. He was a tremendous Parliamentarian and spent many hours sitting listening to Commons debates from his regular seat next to the gangway. I always regarded him as a wise old owl, full of sound advice, though he could be a touch pompous at times.

My first memories of Cormack were while I was a teenage schoolboy and first taking an interest in politics. He was a regular guest on TV - at times too regular - appearing as the young pro-Heath backbench Conservative. Sadly, he never held his office, largely because his views were out of step with Margaret Thatcher.

It must have been a difficult decision to give up his seat, but in recent months Cormack had become increasingly dismayed at the behaviour of many of his Commons colleagues during the expenses affair, but also dismayed at the growing restrictions placed upon MPs as a result.

It must also be a wrench because Sir Patrick was second in line to become Father of the House at the next election (its longest serving member), when the current Father, Alan Williams, is due to retire. Having failed in his attempt earlier this year to become Speaker, it is a position which Sir Patrick would have loved to hold.

The next Father is currently due to be Sir Peter Tapsell, who has served continuously since 1966 (though was also an MP from 1959 to 1964) and always sits below Cormack in the Commons.

After Tapsell, the succession goes to one of the 1970 intake who are still in the House. And Sir Patrick Cormack was first in the queue of that group, having taken the oath first on arriving at the House after his initial election. (Sir Patrick assured me a few months ago that his problem in 2005, when the general election contest in his Staffordshire seat was delayed several weeks because of the death of one of his opponents, would not have counted against his continuous service).

Should Sir Peter Tapsell also decide to retire next year, then the next in line to become Father of the House will now be Sir Gerald Kaufman, followed by Ken Clarke, Michael Meacher and Dennis Skinner, all of whom were first elected in 1970 and have been MPs continuously ever since. Two others who remain from the 1970 intake - Gavin Strang and John Prescott - have already announced their retirements. So too has Ian Paisley, though Paisley would not have been a contender for Father as he stood down briefly as an MP in 1985 when Unionists resigned their seats and fought by-elections in protest at the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
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