Jim Prior

Jim Prior    (politician)
Born	James Michael Leathes Prior 1927-10-11
Died	2016-12-12 (Age 89)
Nationality	UK
Alma mater	Charterhouse School, Pembroke College (Cambridge)
Member of	The Other Club
Party	Conservative
Conservative British politician squeezed out by Thatcher faction  Secretary of State for Northern Ireland  In office 14 September 1981 - 27 September 1984 Succeeded by Douglas Hurd  Secretary of State for Employment  In office 4 May 1979 - 14 September 1981 Succeeded by Norman Tebbit  Leader of the House of Commons  In office 5 November 1972 - 4 March 1974  Lord President of the Council In office 5 November 1972 - 4 March 1974  Minister of Agriculture Fisheries and Food  In office 20 June 1970 - 5 November 1972  Member of Parliament for Waveney In office 8 October 1959 - 11 June 1987  Member of Parliament for Waveney In office 29 October 1974 - 4 May 1979 11 March 1974   Shadow Secretary of State for Employment In office 29 October 1974 - 4 May 1979  Shadow Home Secretary  In office 11 March 1974 - 13 June 1974 Succeeded by Keith Joseph  Member of Parliament for WaveneyLowestoft (1959–1983) In office 8 October 1959 - 11 June 1987  Member of Parliament for WaveneyLowestoft (1959–1983) In office 29 October 1974 - 4 May 1979 11 March 1974

James Michael Leathes Prior, Baron Prior, sometimes known as Jim Prior, was a British Conservative politician. A Member of Parliament from 1959 to 1987, he represented the Suffolk constituency of Lowestoft until 1983 and then the renamed constituency of Waveney from 1983 to 1987, when he stood down from the House of Commons and was made a life peer. He was in two Conservative cabinets, and outside parliament was Chairman of the Arab British Chamber of Commerce from 1996 to 2004.

Under Edward Heath, Prior was Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1970 to 1972, then Leader of the House of Commons until Heath lost office in the wake of the February 1974 election. His party returned to power under Margaret Thatcher in 1979, and Prior was Secretary of State for Employment from 1979 to 1981, disagreeing with some of her views on trade unions and her monetarist economic policies generally. This made him a leader of the so-called "wet" faction in the Conservative ranks. In 1981 he was moved to the less pivotal role of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, from which he stood down in 1984; he never returned to government.

Life and career

Prior was born in Norwich, the son of solicitor Charles Bolingbroke Leathes Prior (1883–1964) and Aileen Sophia Mary (1893–1978), daughter of barrister Charles Storey Gilman. Charles Prior's uncle was head of the family of Prior of Adstock Manor, Bletchley, Buckinghamshire; the family was closely related to the Lake baronets, the Stuart-Menteth baronets, the Blackett family of Wylam, Northumberland, and the Prideaux-Brune family of Prideaux Place, Cornwall. Prior was educated at Orwell Park School, then at Charterhouse School before going on to Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he earned a first class honours degree in Land economy. He performed his two-year National Service as an officer in the Royal Norfolk Regiment of the British Army, serving in Germany and India.

He was first elected to Parliament in 1959, and was Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1970 to 1972, then Leader of the House of Commons and Lord President of the Council until March 1974. He was one of several unsuccessful candidates in the Conservative Party's 1975 leadership election, entering at the second round and gaining 19 votes to Margaret Thatcher's 146.

Cabinet years

Under Margaret Thatcher he was Secretary of State for Employment from May 1979 to 14 September 1981. Thatcher said of their relationship, "we agreed that trade unions had acquired far too many powers and privileges. We also agreed that these must be dealt with one step at a time. But when it came down to specific measures, there was deep disagreement about how fast and how far to move."

Prior is believed to have annoyed Thatcher by being too friendly with trade union leaders, with Thatcher writing "He [Prior] had forged good relations with a number of trade union leaders whose practical value he perhaps overestimated." And during his period in the Cabinet, he is believed to have angered the right wing of his party and the Prime Minister for not pressing far enough with anti-trade union legislation. In the September 1981 cabinet reshuffle Prior was moved from the Employment portfolio to become Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, an office he held until September 1984. At the time of the reshuffle, it was reported that Prior considered following the sacked Ian Gilmour to the back benches to oppose the Thatcher Government's economic policies. However, Prior ultimately decided to accept being moved to the Northern Ireland Office after consulting cabinet colleagues William Whitelaw, then Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party, and Francis Pym. This transfer was widely seen as a move by Thatcher to isolate Prior, who disagreed with her on a number of economic issues. The post of Secretary of State for Northern Ireland was seen as a dumping ground to marginalise ministers. However, when Prior resigned, Thatcher revealed that she was going to offer him another Cabinet post during the reshuffle, which would have very likely been a non-economic one.

Later years

In 1986, he collaborated with John Cassels and Pauline Perry to create the Council for Industry and Higher Education (CIHE), which would become the National Centre for Universities and Business in 2013.

He retired from Parliament in 1987, and was created a life peer as Baron Prior, of Brampton in the County of Suffolk, on 14 October 1987.

He was chairman and later vice-president of the Rural Housing Trust.

After his retirement from politics he was much sought after in the world of business: he served as chairman of both GEC and Allders, and had directorships at Barclays, Sainsburys and United Biscuits.

Prior was interviewed about the rise of Thatcherism for the 2006 BBC TV documentary series Tory! Tory! Tory! and in 2012 as part of The History of Parliament's oral history project.

Personal life and death

In January 1954 Prior married Jane Primrose Gifford Lywood, daughter of Air Vice-Marshal Oswyn George William Gifford Lywood, CB, CBE, a developer of the Typex cypher machines, of a landed gentry family of Woodlands, near Sevenoaks, Kent. They had four children. Prior's eldest son David Prior held the seat of North Norfolk between 1997 and 2001, and was appointed Parliamentary-Under Secretary of State for NHS Productivity; he was later, in May 2015, elevated to the peerage in his own right as Baron Prior of Brampton.

James Prior died on 12 December 2016 at the age of 89.

After Prior's death, Keith Simpson MP said of him: "In many ways he was a larger than life figure. He had a ruddy face, he played up to being the farmer. People underestimated him because he didn’t claim to be a Keith Joseph or Enoch Powell parading their intellectualism. But he was somebody who was well-loved by the grassroots and was a decent man who was in politics out of a sense of public service."

Affiliations

• Conservative Party Vice-Chair 1965, Deputy Chairman 1972-1974
• Arab-British Chamber of Commerce Chair 1996-2004

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1988	3 June 1988	5 June 1988	Austria Interalpen-Hotel Telfs-Buchen	The 36th meeting, 114 participants

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