John Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick
Encyclopedia
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
member of the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
who became the first black Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
peer in 1996, after unsuccessfully standing as their parliamentary candidate in Cheltenham in the 1992 general election. Taylor initially practised as a barrister and has also been a company director and a TV and radio presenter. In January 2011, after a trial in the Crown Court, he was convicted of false accounting in connection with his Parliamentary expenses claims. Taylor was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment on 31 May 2011 but was released under home detention curfew just 3 months later.
Biography
Taylor was born to JamaicaJamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n parents in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
in 1952. His father was Derief Taylor, a professional cricketer, and his mother was a nurse. Taylor attended Moseley Grammar School
Moseley School
Moseley School: A Language College is a large comprehensive school in the Moseley area of Birmingham, England. It has a predominantly male, Muslim student population...
in Birmingham where he was head boy
Head boy
Head Boy and Head Girl are terms commonly used in the British education system, and in private schools throughout the Commonwealth.-United Kingdom:...
, then Keele University
Keele University
Keele University is a campus university near Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as an experimental college dedicated to a broad curriculum and interdisciplinary study, Keele is most notable for pioneering the dual honours degree in Britain...
where he studied English Literature and Law, followed by the Inns of Court School of Law
Inns of Court School of Law
The Inns of Court School of Law, often abbreviated to ICSL is a professional legal training institution based in London in Gray's Inn...
in London.
Taylor married in 1981, he and his wife having three children together and living in Ealing
Ealing
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...
. They divorced in 2005. The Daily Telegraph reported that Taylor is an evangelical Christian, and in 2009 married a wealthy evangelical Christian from Florida, where Taylor lived for a short while. That marriage was annulled in 2010.
Taylor was appointed as a part-time Deputy District Judge (Magistrates Court) in 1997.
- 1976 - BA (Hons) Law Degree
- 1978 - Gray's Inn Advocacy Award winner
- 1978 - Called to the Bar, Barrister-at-Law
- 1986-91 - North West Thames Regional Health Authority
- 1999 - Honorary Doctorate in Law, LLD, Warwick University
- 1986-90 - SolihullSolihullSolihull is a town in the West Midlands of England with a population of 94,753. It is a part of the West Midlands conurbation and is located 9 miles southeast of Birmingham city centre...
Borough Councillor - 1990-91 - Special Adviser to the Home SecretaryHome SecretaryThe Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State...
and Ministers of State - 1992-93 - Greater London Further Education Funding Council
- 1992-95 - Independent Football CommissionIndependent Football CommissionThe Independent Football Commission operated from 2002 to 2008 in England as an independent body within football's regulatory framework. The IFC scrutinised and monitored the performance of the Football Association, the FA Premier League and the Football League and issued publicly-available...
- 1997 - Introduced the Criminal Evidence Amendment Act 1997
- 1998 - 2000 Vice President, British Board of Film ClassificationBritish Board of Film ClassificationThe British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
- 2007 - All Party Parliamentary Information Select Committee
Political career
He stood unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in the 1992 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
in Cheltenham, losing to the Liberal Democrats in a campaign portrayed by outsiders as having been influenced by the issue of race, with Taylor's West Indian background causing concern to some members of the local Conservative party.
Taylor was made a life peer
Life peer
In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the Peerage whose titles cannot be inherited. Nowadays life peerages, always of baronial rank, are created under the Life Peerages Act 1958 and entitle the holders to seats in the House of Lords, presuming they meet qualifications such as...
as Baron Taylor of Warwick, of Warwick in the County of Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
in 1996; he was the first black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
Conservative peer. He was also Chancellor of Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University
Bournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...
.
Criminal convictions for false accounting
On 16 July 2010, Taylor resigned the Tory WhipWhip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
as he had been charged with six offences of false accounting, claiming more than £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
11,000 in overnight subsistence and mileage claims. He appeared before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in August 2010.
On 25 January 2011, at Southwark Crown Court
Southwark Crown Court
Southwark Crown Court is one of three Crown Court buildings in London SE1, along with Inner London Crown Court and Blackfriars Crown Court.Opened in 1983, the brick building is located close to the River Thames at the south of London Bridge, next to Hay's Galleria...
before Mr Justice Saunders, Taylor was found guilty by the jury which delivered majority verdicts (11 votes to 1) on six counts of false accounting, relating to a total of £11,277.80 in false parliamentary expenses claims. The first such claim was for £1,555.70, the second for £2,042.80, the third was £1,600.70, the fourth £2,309.50, the fifth £2,421.80, and the final claim was for £1,347. He had claimed that his main residence was in Oxford, at an address which was occupied by his half nephew and the nephew's partner (who owned the premises). In fact, Taylor lived in Ealing
Ealing
Ealing is a suburban area of west London, England and the administrative centre of the London Borough of Ealing. It is located west of Charing Cross and around from the City of London. It is one of the major metropolitan centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically a rural village...
, West London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Taylor had claimed payment of travel costs between what he claimed was his Oxford home and Westminster, as well as subsistence expenses for staying in London. In fact, as prosecution counsel put it in her closing submissions to the jury, the claims were for journeys which he did not make, from a home which was not his. He nonetheless argued that the six claims he had submitted were made in good faith and that it was the practice for such false claims for expenses to be made, in order to give rise to payments in the nature of allowances, since peers did not receive a salary. He also claimed that he had been acting on the advice of colleagues. On 31 May 2011 he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment. He was released in September 2011 after serving 3 months of this sentence, under the home detention curfew scheme.
Outside politics
He has been a TV and radio presenter on: Crime Stalker (Carlton TV), Talk About (BBC1), The John Taylor Programme (BBC Radio2), Powerhouse (Channel 4). In September 2007 Taylor was a guest presenter for TalksportTalkSPORT
Talksport , owned by UTV radio, is one of the United Kingdom's three terrestrial analogue Independent National Radio broadcasters, offering a sports and talk radio service broadcast from London to the United Kingdom....
while James Whale
James Whale (radio)
Michael "James" Whale is a British radio and television host. He is known for his plain-speaking, often ascerbic and confrontational, broadcasting style; during phone-ins he frequently hangs up on callers he disagrees with or who do not make their point quickly enough.-Early life:Whale was born...
was on holiday.
- Non-executive Director, Currencies DirectCurrencies DirectCurrencies Direct Ltd is a UK based foreign exchange broker and international payment provider. It provides currency exchange services in a number of different countries to individuals and small businesses.-Company history:...
Ltd (resigned July 2010) - Non-executive Director, Mottram Holdings plc
- Consultant, Kleinwort BensonKleinwort BensonKleinwort Benson is a leading Private Bank that offers a wide range of financial services to private and corporate clients from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. The bank has its headquarters on St George Street in Mayfair, and is supported by seven UK regional and two...
Bank - Chancellor, Bournemouth UniversityBournemouth UniversityBournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...
, 2001-6. - Chairman, Warwick Communications Ltd
- Vice President, National Small Business Bureau
- Vice President, British Board of Film ClassificationBritish Board of Film ClassificationThe British Board of Film Classification , originally British Board of Film Censors, is a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and responsible for the national classification of films within the United Kingdom...
, 1998-2008.