| Honorific-Prefix: | The Right Honourable |
| The Lord Skelmersdale | |
| Office: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland |
| Primeminister: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start: | 26 July 1989 |
| Term End: | 28 November 1990 |
| Predecessor: | The Lord Lyell |
| Successor: | Jeremy Hanley |
| Office1: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security |
| Primeminister1: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start1: | 25 July 1988 |
| Term End1: | 26 July 1989 |
| Predecessor1: | Office established |
| Successor1: | The Lord Henley |
| Office2: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Security |
| Primeminister2: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start2: | 13 June 1987 |
| Term End2: | 25 July 1988 |
| Predecessor2: | Michael Portillo |
| Successor2: | Edwina Currie |
| Office3: | Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment |
| Primeminister3: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start3: | 10 September 1986 |
| Term End3: | 13 June 1987 |
| Predecessor3: | Angela Rumbold |
| Successor3: | Christopher Chope |
| Office4: | Lord-in-waiting Government Whip |
| Primeminister4: | Margaret Thatcher |
| Term Start4: | 9 January 1981 |
| Term End4: | 10 September 1986 |
| Predecessor4: | The Lord Trefgarne |
| Successor4: | The Lord Hesketh |
| Office5: | Member of the House of Lords |
| Status5: | Lord Temporal |
| Term Label5: | as a hereditary peer |
| Term Start5: | 8 July 1974 |
| Term End5: | 11 November 1999 |
| Predecessor5: | The 6th Baron Skelmersdale |
| Successor5: | Seat abolished |
| Term Label6: | as an elected hereditary peer |
| Term Start6: | 11 November 1999 |
| Term End6: | 31 October 2018 |
| 1Blankname6: | Election |
| 1Namedata6: | 1999 |
| Predecessor6: | Seat established |
| Successor6: | The 15th Lord Reay |
| Birth Date: | 2 April 1945 |
| Party: | Conservative |
| Alma Mater: | Eton College |
Roger Bootle-Wilbraham, 7th Baron Skelmersdale (2 April 1945 – 31 October 2018), was a British politician and Conservative member of the House of Lords.
He was educated at Eton College and Lord Wandsworth College.[1]
From 1972, Lord Skelmersdale and his wife Christine owned and operated Broadleigh Gardens,[2] a horticultural centre at Barr House, Bishops Hull, Taunton, Somerset.[3]
Lord Skelmersdale succeeded to the peerage in 1973 on the death of his father Lionel Bootle-Wilbraham, 6th Baron Skelmersdale.[1] He was made a House of Lords whip in Margaret Thatcher's government in 1981, holding that position until 1986. He then moved to the Department of Environment as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and then to the Department of Health and Social Security in 1987 before that department was split in 1988.
Lord Skelmersdale continued at the Department of Social Security until 1989 when he was assigned to the Northern Ireland Office, serving until the end of Thatcher's premiership in November 1990. He was not reappointed by John Major.[1]
With the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999, Lord Skelmersdale, along with almost all other hereditary peers, lost his automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. He was however elected as one of the ninety-two elected hereditary peers to remain in the House of Lords pending completion of House of Lords reform.
Lord Skelmersdale was, as of 2006, a Conservative Shadow Minister for the Department for Work and Pensions as a member of David Cameron's front bench team, however, he did not become a minister in the coalition Cameron ministry starting in 2010.[4]
He served as a Deputy Chairman of Committees from 1991[5] to 2003 (and Deputy Speaker from 1995), and again from 2010[6] to 2014.
Lord Skelmersdale was a bridge player and a member of the all-party parliamentary bridge group.
Lord Skelmersdale died on 31 October 2018 at the age of 73.[7]