Call for memorial to MP Ian Gow

Ian Gow opposed the Anglo-Irish agreement and resigned in protest.

Twenty years after he was killed by the IRA, there are calls for a permanent memorial to Sussex MP Ian Gow.

Conservative MP Andrew Rosindell says a permanent tribute is needed to remember the former treasury minister, who was killed by the IRA.

"He was a magnificent member of this House and somebody that I believe should be recognised permanently in the same way that Airey Neave is recognised," said Mr Rosindell .

The MP knew Mr Gow when he was a teenager and described him as a close personal friend and political mentor.

MP calls for Ian Gow tribute

Mr Gow's widow, Dame Jane Whiteley, said that she was "delighted and very proud" to hear of the call for a memorial.

"Ian is still very much in my thoughts." she said.

In July 1990 Mr Gow was killed by an IRA bomb planted at his home in Hankham, near Pevensey.

It followed his protest at the 1985 Anglo-Irish agreement, which gave Dublin a role in Northern Ireland for the first time in more than 60 years.

Ian Gow was killed by an IRA bomb planted at his home in Sussex.

The Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said it brought new hope of ending the violence in Northern Ireland.

But Ian Gow - one of Mrs Thatcher's closest political allies - and Treasury minister - resigned in protest at the deal.

He set up a group in 1986 to fight the case for keeping the status quo in Northern Ireland.

His government colleague Airey Neave, who was murdered by an INLA car bomb in the Palace of Westminster, is remembered on a memorial at Merton College, Oxford.