Keith Joseph; Architect of Thatcher Market Reforms

Keith Joseph, the publicity-shy political scientist behind Margaret Thatcher’s free-market reforms, died Saturday. He was 76.

Lord Joseph died in a London hospital of undisclosed causes. He suffered a stroke last year.

Courteous, reflective and calm, he was probably closer to the former prime minister than anyone else in Parliament. It was only after he assured her that he would not run for the Tory leadership in 1975 that she sought it herself.

“Today I have lost one of my dearest friends, England one of her greatest men,” Lady Thatcher said.

Joseph held many governmental posts after being elected to Parliament in 1956. But he avoided the limelight.

Several times in his 30-year political career he found his speeches widely misunderstood. His refined and often arcane arguments on high Toryism and the class structure led to blazing headlines and intense controversy.

The most notorious incident occurred in October, 1974, when the Conservatives were in opposition in a Labor-led government. He made a speech in Birmingham interpreted as a call for more birth control among women in the lowest social classes.

But Joseph, the Oxford-educated son of a baronet, said his words were grossly misrepresented.