Jim Prior

The Right Honourable The Lord Prior PC
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In office 14 September 1981 – 27 September 1984
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Humphrey Atkins
Succeeded by	Douglas Hurd
Secretary of State for Employment
In office 4 May 1979 – 14 September 1981
Prime Minister	Margaret Thatcher
Preceded by	Albert Booth
Succeeded by	Norman Tebbit
Leader of the House of Commons Lord President of the Council
In office 5 November 1972 – 4 March 1974
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Robert Carr
Succeeded by	Edward Short
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office 20 June 1970 – 5 November 1972
Prime Minister	Edward Heath
Preceded by	Cledwyn Hughes
Succeeded by	Joseph Godber
Member of Parliament for Waveney (Lowestoft, 1959–1983)
In office 8 October 1959 – 18 May 1987
Preceded by	Edward Evans
Succeeded by	David Porter
Shadow Cabinet positions Shadow Secretary of State for Employment In office 29 October 1974 – 4 May 1979 Leader Margaret Thatcher Preceded by Reg Prentice Succeeded by Albert Booth Shadow Home Secretary In office 11 March 1974 – 13 June 1974 Leader Edward Heath Preceded by Roy Jenkins Succeeded by Keith Joseph
Personal details
Born	James Michael Leathes Prior (1927-10-11)11 October 1927 Norwich, Norfolk, England
Died	12 December 2016(2016-12-12) (aged 89) Brampton, Suffolk, England
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Jane Lywood ​ ​ (m. 1954; died 2015)​
Children	4 (including David)
Education	Charterhouse School
Alma mater	Pembroke College, Cambridge

James Michael Leathes Prior, Baron Prior, PC (11 October 1927 – 12 December 2016) was a British Conservative Party 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 served 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.^[1]