Roger Harris · CC BY 3.0

Born Michael Hecht to a Jewish family in Swansea, his father a refugee from Romania, he rose through Margaret Thatcher's and John Major's governments to become Home Secretary and later led the Conservative Party as Leader of the Opposition from 2003 to 2005. His leadership brought the party thirty-three additional seats at the 2005 general election, short of unseating Tony Blair's Labour government but enough to end talk of Conservative irrelevance.