Prior, Tory wet who clashed with Maggie, dies aged 89
FORMER Tory minister Lord Prior has died aged 89.
He served for five years in Margaret Thatcher’s cabinet where he was seen as one of the leading ‘wets’ who opposed her economic policies.
First elected as MP for Lowestoft in1959, Jim Prior, pictured, rose to prominence under Edward Heath – then leader of the Opposition – who made him parliamentary private secretary in 1965.
When the Conservatives gained power in 1970, Lord Prior was rewarded with promotion to the Cabinet as agriculture minister, before becoming leader of the Commons two years later.
Following Mr Heath’s downfall in the wake of the Tories’ 1974 election defeat, Lord Prior stood for the party leadership but gained the votes of just 19 MPs. Despite the fact he was on the opposite wing of the party to Mrs Thatcher – who won the leadership – she kept him in her top team, appointing him as employment secretary when she came to power in 1979.
But tensions between the two soon came to a head, as he resisted her reforms designed to break the power of the trade unions following the industrial chaos which brought down the Heath government.
He was moved to the post of Northern Ireland secretary two years later – seen as a sign of Mrs Thatcher’s frustration at his refusal to press ahead more quickly with her policies.
‘I was playing for high stakes and I got it wrong,’ he later admitted.
He stood down as an MP at the 1987 election and was later made a life peer. His death was reported on the official Parliament website.
Former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said: ‘He was a man who had strong values in politics.
‘He knew what he believed in and no one was going to shift him. He was a rock, a man of integrity.’ Lord Baker of Dorking, who also served under Mrs Thatcher, said Lord Prior had been in government at a ‘very difficult time’ for the country.
‘Jim Prior was the epitome of decency,’ he told the BBC.
‘People who knew him and worked with him would say he was a good, upright man. He was dealing with militant trade unionism. The trade unions had actually brought Ted Heath down and James Callaghan down, and Margaret Thatcher was quite determined that she wasn’t going to be the third victim.’