| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Roper | |
| Honorific-Suffix: | PC |
| Birthname: | John Francis Hodgess Roper |
| Birth Date: | 10 September 1935 |
| Order1: | Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords |
| Term Start1: | 7 June 2001 |
| Term End1: | 5 May 2005 |
| Leader1: | Charles Kennedy |
| Predecessor1: | The Lord Harris of Greenwich |
| Successor1: | The Lord Shutt of Greetland |
| Order2: | Director, Institute for Security Studies of Western European Union |
| Term Start2: | April 1990 |
| Term End2: | September 1995 |
| Order3: | Chief Whip, Social Democrat Party |
| Term Start3: | 26 March 1981 |
| Term End3: | 9 June 1983 |
| Leader3: | Roy Jenkins |
| Predecessor3: | Office Created |
| Successor3: | John Cartwright |
| Constituency Mp4: | Farnworth |
| Term Start4: | 18 June 1970 |
| Term End4: | 9 June 1983 |
| Predecessor4: | Ernest Thornton |
| Successor4: | Constituency abolished |
| Alma Mater: | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Party: | Liberal Democrats |
| Otherparty: |
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John Francis Hodgess Roper, Baron Roper PC (10 September 1935 – 29 January 2016)[1] was a British Liberal Democrat politician.
Roper was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School (Manchester), Reading School, Magdalen College, Oxford (studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) and the University of Chicago.[2] He began his career as an economics lecturer at the University of Manchester.[3]
Roper first stood for Parliament for High Peak as a Labour candidate at the 1964 general election, but the Conservative David Walder retained the marginal seat. He was elected Member of Parliament for Farnworth at the 1970 general election.[4] In 1972 he acted as an unofficial whip for pro-European Labour MPs to help pass the Heath government's European Communities Act.[5]
He sat as a Labour Co-operative MP (1970–81) and for the Social Democratic Party (SDP) from 1981 to 1983, when he was also the party's Chief Whip. His Farnworth seat was subsequently abolished, and he contested Worsley (which contained parts of the abolished Farnworth constituency) in the 1983 general election, finishing third in a three-way marginal.[6]
On 12 May 2000, he was created a Life peer as Baron Roper, of Thorney Island in the City of Westminster. He was the Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords until 2005. He was subsequently appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom. In 2008, he was elected Principal Deputy Chairman of Committees.[7] He retired from the House of Lords on 23 May 2015.[8]
Roper was wrongfully accused by author Anthony Glees of having been a Stasi "agent of some influence" during his time at Chatham House.[9] [10] [11]
Roper rejected the charges and said that he was engaged in building bridges with East Germany in the 1980s as part of a Foreign Office-approved policy of thawing relations. "He was deceived, he says, about the background of an undercover Stasi officer he employed as a research fellow when he was director of studies at Chatham House".[12]
Roper was married to Hope Edwards from 1959 until her death in 2003. She was the daughter of John Edwards, a former Health and Treasury Minister under Clement Attlee. They had one daughter, Kate Stewart Roper (originally Kate Roper). He also had 3 grandchildren. [13]