Former British Conservative politician, employment minister and Northern Secretary Jim Prior, who has died in his 90th year, stood for a compassionate British Conservatism, opposed the policies of Margaret Thatcher, and viewed the right wing of his own party as "nasty and authoritarian".
His Conservatism encompassed fairness, full employment, and a compassionate society. He strongly believed that workers, and not just shareholders, have rights. “The weakest in society do need some form of protection against exploitation, and it is the government’s task to perform this role,” he wrote.
For his 28 years as an MP, he represented a constituency centred on the working-class port of Lowestoft in Suffolk. Thatcher banished him to Northern Ireland as Secretary of State in 1981. He threatened to resign if sent there, but backed down before her forcefulness.
During his three years there, he tried to introduce rolling devolution with cross-community support. He admitted to finding the North a foreign country. He was the most English of men, with the added disadvantage of arriving as the 1981 hunger strike was coming to an end. On his second day, he visited the Maze prison where, through a window, he saw INLA hunger striker Liam McCluskey – and realised there were those prepared “in a stubborn, yet courageous, way to accept the inevitable and die.”
While some army and police actions during his time are still controversial, he tried to conciliate nationalists. One of his earliest policy changes was a major liberalisation in the prison regime. His administration provided the first funding for Irish-language schools. “We were not going to give the unionist majority the right once more, as they had for nearly fifty years under the old Stormont legislation, to govern the province entirely as they wished, free from any checks or conditions,” he said.
Thatcher, who became increasingly rude to him, encouraged her supporters to obstruct his devolution bill in Westminster. In cabinet, she called it “rotten”. During one of her visits to the North, he complained she had not mentioned his proposals in a speech. She ignored him and asked her husband to add a dash of water to the wine-glass of whisky she was holding. Facing this added obstruction, his attempts at devolution failed due to a background of violence and polarisation between the communities.
The Assembly he established was still-born, as nationalists boycotted it. The DUP were its strongest supporters, being always devolutionist. His Assembly also opened the way for Sinn Féin’s move into electoral politics. Until then, the party had boycotted elections: it contested the Assembly elections, if on an abstentionist basis.
His significant success was protecting the North from the worst of Thatcher’s cuts, and overseeing the large-scale building of social housing. Northern Ireland was his last cabinet office.
He had previously served as minister for agriculture and minister for employment, among others, in Conservative governments of the 1970s and 1980s. His approach as employment minister brought him into collision with Thatcher, as he believed in conciliating the unions. That led directly to his banishment to the North. Ironically, he had been an early supporter of promoting Thatcher, recognising her ability.
James Michael Leathes Prior was born in Norwich in October 1927, youngest of four children to Charles Prior, a solicitor, and his wife Aileen (née Gilman). His mother had a strong social conscience, and spent her Sundays visiting hospital patients. He was educated at Preparatory School at Aldeburgh, then Charterhouse School. At Charterhouse, he showed an early talent for lobbying. The second World War was raging, and he was a member of a club which raised pigs. The government ruled school pig clubs would not enjoy the benefits of other such clubs. The minister for food visited Charterhouse: young Prior was sat next to him at tea; and, the next day, the minister changed the regulations.
After school, he was conscripted into the army for two years, serving as a junior officer in India and Germany, then studied land economy at Cambridge. After leaving politics, he served as chairman of multinational GEC. He is survived by his daughter, Jane, sister Pat (Hammond), and sons Jeremy, David and Simon. He was predeceased by his wife Jane.