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.

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.

Norman Tebbit, who served as a cabinet minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, has died aged 94. Throughout the 1980s he worked as the chairman of the Conservative Party and led the departments of trade and industry and employment.