Baron Gilbert was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood, St John's College, Oxford, where he studied philosophy, politics and economics, and New York University, where he gained a PhD in international economics.

[3] As Minister for Transport he approved the London M25 orbital motorway project and introduced the Bill to make the wearing of seat belts compulsory.

[4] After his retirement from the House of Commons, he was created a Life Peer as Baron Gilbert, of Dudley in the County of West Midlands on 16 May 1997[5] and from 1997 to 1999 he was the Minister of State for Defence Procurement in Tony Blair's first government.

[4] Always a staunch proponent of Britain's independent nuclear deterrent, he caused controversy[6] when he proposed neutron bombing the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to "prevent people from infiltrating from one side to the other.

"[7] In October 2012 he said in the House of Lords "The A400M [the RAF's new transport aircraft] is a complete, absolute wanking disaster, and we should be ashamed of ourselves.