Born in London and educated at Ampleforth College, Ancram studied History at Christ Church, Oxford, and read Law at the University of Edinburgh.

Ancram was born in London and is the elder son and second child of Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian, and his wife Antonella.

He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Scottish Office with responsibility for Home Affairs, Housing, Local Government, Rating Reform and the Environment from 1983 until 1987.

In 2001, he ran against Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Portillo, Kenneth Clarke and David Davis in the election for the party leadership.

Both swung their support behind Iain Duncan Smith, who went on to win, beating Clarke in the final vote of party members.

Duncan Smith made Ancram Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party and Shadow Foreign Secretary in September 2001.

Ancram was a founding signatory in 2005 of the Henry Jackson Society principles, advocating a proactive approach to the spread of liberal democracy across the world, including when necessary by military intervention.

"[7] In 2006, Ancram set up Global Strategy Forum, a bi-partisan foreign affairs think tank based in London.

[8] Ancram was a founder member of the Top Level Group of UK Parliamentarians for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-proliferation,[9] established in October 2009.

On 11 August 2009, Ancram announced that he was to stand down as the MP for Devizes at the 2010 general election due to heart problems.

[10] He retired when Parliament was dissolved on 12 April 2010; his successor as Conservative member for the Devizes constituency was Claire Perry.

Ancram was a keen country music fan and often played acoustic guitar at Conservative Party conferences.

He is said to have dropped the use of this title in favour of plain Mr Michael Ancram after becoming a lawyer, supposedly because he believed it might confuse the jury if any judge were to have addressed him as "My Lord".