Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1834–1835 and 1841–1846 and is regarded as the father of modern British policing. As Home Secretary he reformed the criminal law and founded the Metropolitan Police, whose officers became known as bobbies and peelers, and backed the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829. His Tamworth Manifesto of 1834 laid down principles on which the modern Conservative Party is based. In his second ministry he cut tariffs and introduced a 3 per cent income tax, and after the outbreak of the Great Irish Famine he joined with Whigs and Radicals to repeal the Corn Laws, which led to his resignation in 1846.