Former Attorney General dies

Former Attorney General Lord Lyell has died at the age of 71, his family announced.

As Sir Nicholas Lyell, he was appointed Solicitor General by Margaret Thatcher in 1987 and served in the post until 1992 when her successor as prime minister, John Major, made him the Government’s most senior law officer.

A practising barrister, he was elected to Parliament for Hemel Hempstead in 1979. He retired from the Commons in 2001.