Donald Chapman adopted the name of Northfield, the Birmingham constituency he had represented for 19 years, when he became a peer in 1975.

A grammar school boy who took degrees in economics and agriculture at Cambridge, Chapman served on Cambridge City Council while he continued his research in the field.

He had taken an administrative position in the Labour Party in 1945, and in 1951 won his Commons seat.

According to his Telegraph obituary, he took a special interest in immigration, visiting Kingston to find out what was drawing Jamaican immigrants to his home town.

He also became an animal welfare campaigner, persuading the then agriculture minister to regulate the trade in horses from Ireland after witnessing their ill treatment, and exposing the illegal slaughter of horses in sight of carcasses, the Telegraph said.

“A bright political future was predicted for him, but he soon could not afford to become a minister,” the Telegraph reported.

Instead, he focused on his business interests, which included property development, and served as a special adviser to the European Commission from 1978 to 1984 and as the chairman of the Rural Development Commission from 1974 to 1980.

He was also a staunch campaigner against fluoridation of the water supply.

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