[2] He was educated at Wallington County Grammar School before going on to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1978 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics.

[7][13] To make him accountable to Parliament, he was created a life peer on 1 November 2012 as Baron Deighton, of Carshalton in the County of Surrey,[14] and introduced in the House of Lords the same day.

[citation needed] On 19 April 2020 when it was announced that the death toll in the UK alone of the COVID-19 pandemic had reached 15,000 over the three months precedent, Deighton was appointed "PPE tsar" by Boris Johnson, who himself was recovering from a bout in the intensive care unit with the disease.

[17] Deighton was named in the Pandora Papers scandal as having abused his position as a Tory peer.

[19][20] Deighton was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Years Honours for services to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.