He was educated at Willesden High School, leaving at age 15, and became a legal assistant at Wembley Council, while taking a part-time degree in economics and law at Birkbeck College, University of London.

In the 1966 general election, Stanbrook was the unsuccessful Conservative candidate for the safe Labour seat of East Ham South.

At the next general election in 1970, he gained Orpington with a majority of 1,332, a seat that had been represented by Eric Lubbock of the Liberal Party since the 1962 by-election.

Less predictably, except to those who knew his earlier career, he took the chair in 1987 of the newly created all-party anti-apartheid group, to counter the activities of the pro-South African committee led by his Conservative colleague John Carlisle.

He was critical of the use of the whips against Sir Anthony Meyer's leadership challenge and in March 1990 proclaimed that Michael Heseltine was the best alternative to Thatcher: he had "dynamism, style and a softer image".

[citation needed] In 1979 he had argued that the BBC should be prosecuted under the prevention-of-terrorism legislation and he remained an advocate of banning Sinn Féin and for taking a tough line with terrorists.

'A man of singular energy, invariably polite and quietly spoken, he could be sharp of tongue and often found brutal phrases in which to express his strong convictions.

He gave up the legal profession in 1990 and, after his retirement from Parliament, concentrated on studying for a doctorate (on British Nationality) from the University of East Anglia which he obtained in 1995.