Jim Prior, Baron Prior

James Michael Leathes Prior, Baron Prior, born October 11, 1927, and died December 12, 2016, was a British Conservative politician and Member of Parliament from 1959 to 1987 who held two Cabinet positions under different prime ministers. He was Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food from 1970 to 1972 under Edward Heath, later serving as Leader of the House of Commons, and under Margaret Thatcher he served as Secretary of State for Employment, where he opposed some of her trade union and monetarist policies, and then as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, a move widely seen as marginalizing him. He was regarded as a leader of the Conservative Party's so-called wets, MPs who disagreed with Thatcher's more hardline economic approach, and was created a life peer in 1987.