Tim Rathbone, who served as Conservative MP for Lewes for 23 years, has died.

Mr Rathbone, who was 69, represented Lewes from 1974 until 1997, when he lost to Liberal Democrat Norman Baker.

He died at the Cromwell Road Hospital, London, at the weekend. He had been undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Throughout his years in the Commons, Mr Rathbone was rarely out of the public eye. His tall, upright figure, almost always clad in a dark pin-striped suit, was a familiar sight around his Lewes constituency and Westminster.

Mr Rathbone, who served as chairman of the Commons All-Party Drugs Committee, was critical of anyone who advocated the use of drugs.

He once called for Oasis star Noel Gallagher to be prosecuted for encouraging youngsters to take drugs after the singer and songwriter said: "Drugs is like having a cup of tea in the morning."

Mr Rathbone was educated at Kingsmead Prep School, Seaford, and went to Eton. After a spell in the Army, where he was commissioned in the King's Royal Rifle Corps, he went to Oxford.

A short career as a merchant baker in the City followed before he went to America as an advertising executive. He met his first wife, Margarita, in the US and they married in 1960.

He became chief publicity and public relations officer for the Conservative Party and helped win the 1970 general election.

He looked for a Tory seat in Sussex as he had been educated at Seaford and his parents lived in Bognor.

After trying to become candidate for Eastbourne and Mid Sussex, he was accepted as the Tory candidate for Lewes, first winning the seat in February 1974, succeeding Sir Tufton Beamish.

His marriage to Cuban-born Margarita, with whom he had three children, ended in 1978 and in 1982 he married Susan Stopford-Sackville.

A funeral service will be held at St Mary's Church, Battersea, London, on Friday. There will be a memorial service later this year.