John David Beckett Taylor, Baron Taylor of Warwick[1] (born 1952)[2] is a member of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.[3] In 1996, at the age of 44, he became one of the youngest people in the upper house.[4]
Taylor is the third person of Afro-Caribbean ancestry to enter the House of Lords. He initially practised as a barrister, and served as a part-time deputy district judge (magistrates' courts). Following the UK parliamentary expenses scandal he was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment, relating to £11,277 in falsely claimed expenses, and was subsequently disbarred.[5] He has also been a company director and television and radio presenter.[6][7]
In the 1980s, Taylor was elected to Solihull Council for the safe Conservative Party ward of St Alphege at a by-election in 1985 and was re-elected for a 4-year term in May 1988. He contested Birmingham Perry Barr for the Conservative Party at the 1987 general election, losing by 6,933 votes. He was selected by Conservative Party's Central Office to become the Conservative candidate for Cheltenham at the 1992 general election.[8] The campaign was seen as having been influenced by race,[8][16] with Taylor's Caribbean background reportedly causing concern to some members of the local Conservative Party constituency association, which was split by the issue.[4] Conservative Central Office expelled association members over the issue.[17]John Major, then Prime Minister, campaigned for Taylor in Cheltenham,[18] but he lost the seat to Nigel Jones of the Liberal Democrats by 1,668 votes, the first time since 1950 Cheltenham had not voted for a Conservative candidate and the first time since December 1910 it had voted for a Liberal-aligned candidate.
In early 2009, a major political scandal was triggered by the leaking and subsequent publication of expense claims made by members of the United Kingdom Parliament.[26] On 16 July 2010, Taylor resigned the Conservative Party Whip after being charged with offences connected with claims totalling £11,277.
Several hundred members of the House of Commons and House of Lords were involved in the expenses scandal,[27][28] and six members of the House of Commons and two, including Taylor, of the Lords, were charged and convicted.
Taylor's defence in the Crown Court was that on appointment to the House of Lords he had asked other peers for advice on expenses and allowances and that he was told that the overnight subsistence allowance, the office allowance, and the travel expenses were provided in lieu of a salary, as well as the daily attendance allowance. As a result of claiming for the cost of journeys he had not made, and the cost of accommodation he had not occupied, Taylor was convicted of six counts of false accounting.[29]
In his summing up to the jury, Mr Justice Saunders observed that Taylor was a man of good character who had devoted a lot of time to helping others.[30] The judge imposed a sentence of 12 months' imprisonment, relating to £11,277 in falsely claimed expenses;[15] he also said that the expenses scandal had "left an indelible stain on Parliament".[15] About 15 members of the House of Lords refused to give evidence to support Taylor's defence.[15]
Personal life
Taylor married in 1981 and had three children with his wife. They divorced in 2005. The Daily Telegraph reported that Taylor is an evangelical Christian,[31] and in 2009 he married an evangelical Christian from the US. That marriage lasted 24 days and was annulled in 2010.[8][31] He remarried in 2015.[32]
^"Lady Digby Appointed Chancellor". Bournemouth University Press Release. Bournemouth University. 6 November 2006. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2014.
