Jill Knight, the long-serving Conservative backbench MP for the south Birmingham constituency of Edgbaston, who has died aged 98, was not as benign or inoffensive as she sometimes appeared.
Known for her colourful floral dress sense – once memorably described by the former Times parliamentary sketch writer Craig Brown as making her look like a fist fight in a hydrangea bush – Knight devoted much of her career to campaigning against immigration and easier divorce, was in favour of the return of the death penalty and, most notably, clause 28 banning the alleged promotion of homosexuality by local authorities in their schools.
