Emma Nicholson shocked the political establishment in 1995 when she defected from the Conservatives to the Liberal Democrats. She accused the Conservative Party of having "emasculated the democratic process" and of being anti-Europe. She branded then defence secretary Michael Portillo "an utter disgrace".
Elected as Conservative member for Devon West and Torridge in 1983, she stood down from the Commons at the 1997 general election, having sat as a Lib Dem since her defection. Made a Life Peer, she went on to be elected Lib Dem MEP for the South-East super-constituency in the 1999 European election.
Recently widowed, she was married to businessman Sir Michael Caine, director of Booker plc. An expert in overseas development and charities, she and her husband adopted an Iraqi orphan. Her interest in the plight of the southern Iraqis led her to become involved in the cash-for-questions scandals of the 1990s.
Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed once attempted to give her a car-boot full of frozen lobsters, in a bizarre gesture dubbed 'lobstergate'. Bemused, she dumped the shellfish in a roadside skip.
