Tim Fortescue served from 1971 to 1973 as a whip in the Conservative Government of Sir Edward Heath (obituary July 18, 2005). Nearly a quarter of a century later he gave a first-hand account of what it was like to work in one of the most influential roles in the Westminster village.

In doing so he may have only confirmed assumptions about the Machiavellian nature of whips offices that gained credence as House of Cards, the television drama starring Ian Richardson, was broadcast in 1990. Responding to a question about pressures that whips might put on a recalcitrant MP before important votes, Fortescue said: “It is possible to suggest that it would not be in his interest if people know something or other.”

Unwritten codes oblige whips to keep quiet about the tactics used to keep MPs behaving as party leaderships might want them to. Details about the workings of the secretive cliques to which many politicians belong are also closely guarded. Fortescue, however, spilled the beans. “It’s a self-perpetuating oligarchy: there is no nonsense about democracy.”

Trevor Victor Norman Fortescue was always known as Tim. He was born in 1916, went to school at Uppingham, and attended King’s College, Cambridge. He joined the Colonial Administrative Service in 1939 and sat as a magistrate in Hong Kong and Kenya, although he spent most of the Second World War interned by the Japanese. In 1954 he became the chief marketing officer of the Milk Marketing Board, the farmers’ co-operative set up to find consumers for dairy produce. While at the MMB Fortescue predicted that cardboard cartons would eventually replace bottled milk. He also encouraged roundsmen to behave as sales agents rather than mere doorstep deliverers. Fortescue worked for Nestlé, the Swiss food group, in the early 1960s.

He was MP for Liverpool Garston, from 1966 until February 1974, when he stepped down before Labour took control of the constituency in the first of the two general elections of that year. Garston went on to become staunch Labour territory.

As a constituency MP, Fortescue was an outspoken critic of the way trade unions disrupted car manufacturing at the large, strike-afflicted Halewood plant on Merseyside. Portraying himself as a champion of ordinary employees who wanted to do an honest day’s work, he expressed disgust at the way union officials would bully workers and indulge themselves.

“I have received a large number of anonymous letters in support of my allegations,” he said. “The writers state that they dare not give their names because of fears about reprisals against themselves, their families and their property.” Fortescue spoke of on-duty drunkenness, theft and wilful damage to Ford company property. Others, he said, played football or spent company time drinking tea. Fortescue denounced the regime, to the dismay of Ford as well as the unions, as one of “anarchy”. Other MPs from the region, including Eric Heffer (obituary, May 28, 1991) reacted by tabling a Commons motion accusing Fortescue of making an “hysterical publicity-seeking statement”.

As an MP Fortescue took a close interest in social security issues. In October 1968 he seconded himself to work behind the counter at a dole office in Liverpool. He said that constituents looking for state help had complained: “They didn’t know what to do or where to go. I didn’t know myself. So I went and found out.” He added, “There are some scroungers, but the officers can see them coming a mile off, much quicker than I could.”

Pensions policy was another concern. Writing in 1970, he said: “It is the responsibility of the individual and not the state to provide retirement income over and above a certain level.”

Fortescue left Parliament to pursue a business career. Most notably, he was secretary-general of the Food and Drink Industries Council. Later he had close links with Winchester Cathedral, and served as a director of Winchester Cathedral Enterprises from 1990 to 2000.

Fortescue was appointed CBE in 1984.

He is survived by his wife and a son and a daughter from a previous marriage. Another son, Sir Adrian Fortescue (obituary August 31, 2004) predeceased him.

Tim Fortescue, CBE, MP for Liverpool Garston, 1966-74, was born on August 28, 1916. He died on September 29, 2008, aged 92