without Dominic Cummings.

Is there anything you can’t leave home without?

My mobile phone and my eyebrow pencil.

Do you travel light?

No, I don’t. I always pack for every last contingency.

What’s your favourite destination?

The cruises to the Arctic, because you’ve got completely unspoiled scenery, and when you’re standing alone on deck at 3am, it’s still light.

What are your earliest childhood holiday memories?

After we came back from being posted in Singapore [her father was a Ministry of Defence civil servant and she attended the Royal Naval School, Singapore], we visited relatives in Cornwall and Devon and one holiday we went to the Lake District.

What was Singapore like in the ’50s?

It was terrific. We all swam, sailed and water-skied. Everything was based on the water. I went to school only in the morning; afternoons, I went to Brownies – and swimming twice a week.

Why did you get into politics?

To fight socialism – because when I was growing up, it was the height of the Cold War, and there was a real contest for the future of the globe based on capitalism versus communism.

How did it happen?

I went to Oxford, I was a local councillor, then I was a candidate for Burnley in Lancashire, then for Plymouth Devonport against David Owen – I was 39 and a half by the time I got in.

What did you think of Gyles Brandreth at Oxford?

I didn’t know Gyles Brandreth at Oxford, but he has a lovely imagination and tells a completely false story which has made its way into my Wikipedia entry…

What do you think of the Oxford Union, which is 200 years old this year?

It’s a wonderful institution, one of the few bastions of genuinely free speech left.

What do you think of Michael Howard and his ‘Something of the night’ comment? I don’t think any differently from what I thought at the time.

Who was your favourite PM? Obviously, I’m going to say Thatcher, but John Major was very badly underestimated.

What was your favourite post in the Government?

I enjoyed pensions tremendously, because there were a lot of challenges about at the time, including the Maxwell case.

Why did you retire so early from politics? I didn’t retire early. I was 62 and a half. I’d been there 23 years.

Do you now think Brexit was a success? Yes, but I think the tragedy is that they haven’t used Brexit. We came out in order to be independent, instead of which Hunt and Sunak are shadowing the EU on everything.

What do you think of Rishi Sunak? Ever since he spun the Irish agreement as a great triumph, I have not trusted him an inch.

What do you think of Boris? What he lacked [later on] in Number 10 was Dominic Cummings, and I don’t like Cummings. When he went, there was no one to say, ‘Shut up, Boris. Don’t say anything until we’ve checked the facts.’

Will Labour win the next election? If there were an election tomorrow morning, the answer is yes. But we’ve got the best part of two years.

Which TV appearances have you most enjoyed?

Strictly Come Dancing, and making documentaries.

Why did you become a Catholic?

I became a Catholic because I was totally disillusioned with the Church of England, which hadn’t a clue what it believed in, and was always trying to appeal to the outside world.

What do you think’s been the highlight of your career? When I got one of my constituents out of jail in Morocco. By the time his wife came to see me, he had been convicted and sentenced, had lost his appeal and was facing nine years in a Moroccan jail.

Do you lie on a beach?

My beach-lying days are well and truly over.

What about a daily routine?

When I’m doing Jeremy Vine, I’m up at six o’clock. At home, I’ll fetch the papers from the mat and go back to bed with a cup of coffee, and then not stir my big toe until 9.30.

What’s your favourite food?

I love roast lamb with mint sauce and redcurrant jelly, roast potatoes and veg.

What about languages?

I read Latin just about still. I started to pick up French as an MEP quite well, having loathed it at school.

What’s your biggest headache when travelling?

American airports.

What’s the strangest place you’ve ever slept while being away?

In Kenya in 1989 in glamping tents, with animal noises all around.

What are your travelling tips?

Take medication with you preventatively. I always travel with antibiotics.

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Why won’t he fight cancer?

QMy husband, who is just 70, has recently found out that the cancer he had 20 years ago has returned. We thought we had beaten it, but now he apparently has secondaries.

I’m 65 and the news is devastating. We’ve been married since we left school. Now my husband, who has to walk with a frame, has said emphatically that it is ‘time to go’ and he’s adamant that he doesn’t want chemotherapy again. He just wants to go into a hospice and ‘fade away’. I, on the other hand, am horrified that he doesn’t want to fight it. But he won’t be persuaded. What can I do?

E W, by email

ASurely there is only one thing you can do – and that is to go along with his wishes. Hasn’t he got enough to cope with, facing up to death, without you challenging him all the way? Chemotherapy is rarely anything but unpleasant – and often the effects get worse as you get older. You may think he ‘owes’ it to you and your family to try his utmost to get better, but you actually ‘owe’ it to him to respect his wishes. I think you’re taking this personally. You’re seeing his refusal as a kick in the face, as if he were running off with another woman.

And you’re just trying to put off the day when he dies, which looks likely, in the circumstances, to be sooner rather than later. You could see a grief counsellor together now – and this would help you both come to terms with his future death.

Great sexpectations

QAt age 75, and four years a widower, I have grown to care deeply for a lady in her midfifties. To my astonishment, she has not