He went to the independent Silcoates School in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, where he was Head Boy, and won an Exhibition to St Catharine's College, Cambridge where he studied Economics, gaining an MA in 1960.

Callaghan was duly elected party leader in September 1976 and thus became Prime Minister, and Horam was appointed to the government as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State to Bill Rodgers in the Department of Transport.

[5] On retiring from the House of Commons, Horam was appointed a Commissioner at the Electoral Commission, which supervises all elections and referendums in the UK.

In the Lords he has advocated a Living Wage, raising the Income Tax threshold, better vocational training and more apprenticeships, more help for the Trouble Families Programme, and a big housing drive.

A member of the Conservative European Mainstream Group, he remains strongly pro-EU, believing that the UK maximises its influence and prosperity in the EU.

In a speech in the Lords on 3 December 2020 on the Government’s spending Review, Horam said that he is a supporter of Modern Monetary Theory believing that "the economic Policy should balance the economy, rather than the Budget".

Stating that, "rather than worrying too much about deficits, the advantage of MMT is that it enables Governments to concentrate on what should be done to improve the economy and society, and not be perpetually bogged down in arguments about how to pay for it."

The Government have given clear indication that they prioritise maintaining, and if possible improving, public services and are therefore prepared to put up taxation to the same extent.

"[8] Lord Horam went on to criticise the decision to scrap the £20 uplift in Universal Credit, but said that apart from that blemish the Government’s economic strategy was right.

In the debate on the Autumn 2023 statement, Horam said: "I am afraid to say that we have been running the economy since what I call the Blair-Brown days in a very sub-optimal way, because it has relied on high and increasing levels of immigration...

"[10] In his response to the Queen’s Speech of 2020 in January 2020, Lord Horam called for the Government to deliver on its promises made in the election to help the “towns and cities of the North of England and the Midlands”.

The government could not deal with this investment by "a more relaxed approach to debt" and called for an increase in taxation specifically in relation to capital gains and dividends.

In a speech on 14 October 2021 in the Lords in a debate on Inequalities of Region and Place Horam praised the government’s efforts in helping the north.

As the Prime Minister said when he was Mayor of London: "Do we really want the south-east of Britain, already the most densely populated major country in Europe, to resemble a giant suburbia?

He stated that the Blair Labour Government had bought in heavily to free movement and mass immigration and the results were devastating for some working class communities.

He specifically cited the experience of Paul Embery, the Labour and trade union activist, whose book, Despised, sets out the effect on Dagenham, where he was born.

Horam said he hopes that "present politicians of all parties understand the lessons of the last 20 years and listen more to the views of the British people".

The answer is to restore the limits and restraints on the number of work and other visas granted each year; these were part of government policy under all parties until the Blair government steadily abolished them.”[14] In a letter to The Times on 20 May 2023, Horam wrote: "There is a way of proving more genuinely affordable homes without destroying even more of the precious countryside in our small island.

"[15] In a letter to The Times on 2 July 2021 Lord Horam suggested that one way of improving Union relations within the UK would be to have “regular meetings between the Prime Minister and the First Ministers, revolving between Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and London.”[16] In 2021 Lord Horam helped in setting up, with Sir John Hayes, MP for South Holland the Deepings, the Common Sense Group of Conservative Parilamentarians.