Lady Sally Oppenheim-Barnes: Actor, politician and daughter of Sheffield cutler dead at 96

It was her sixth attempt to get into the Commons but she never lost an election thereafter.

She was born Sarah Amelia Viner in Dublin in July 1928 but brought up in Sheffield, where her father founded his eponymous steel and cutlery company, holder of the royal warrant for King George V.

Sarah – she changed her first name in 1968 – attended Sheffield High School before her theatrical training and afterwards became a social worker in London before eventually changing careers to politics.

During her time at Westminster she was shadow secretary for prices and consumer protection – the only woman in the shadow cabinet – and carried a shopping basket when out in public to demonstrate the effects of inflation.

When Mrs Thatcher became Prime Minister she made Mrs Oppenheim-Barnes her minister for consumer affairs.

She was, however, very far from a regular consumer, holding shares and directorships in several prominent companies including Boots the Chemist.

Made a life peer in 1989, she married the Gloucester missile manufacturer John Barnes in 1984 following the death of her first husband, Henry Oppenheim, four years earlier.

John died in 2004 and Lady Oppenheim-Barnes is survived by the three children of her first marriage.