Tributes to former MP Bill Yates

A former Shropshire MP who rose to national prominence during the Suez Crisis of the 1950s has died at the age of 88.

Conservative Bill Yates represented The Wrekin from 1955 to 1966.

He caused pandemonium in the Commons by accusing his government, and then Prime Minister Anthony Eden, of being involved in an "international conspiracy" over Suez.

• Bill Yates remembered - click here

Mr Yates left Britain in 1968 and emigrated to Australia, where he became a senator in the parliament there.

Former Australian deputy prime minister Tim Fischer confirmed news of Mr Yates's death in an e-mail to latest Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard. It said: "On Sunday morning, at Tallangatta hospital, Bill Yates passed away peacefully. He was born on September 15, 1921 so he had a grand innings in more ways than one."

Mr Pritchard said: "Out of all the past MPs for The Wrekin it is Bill Yates, a true Conservative, most people remember with the greatest fondness."