John David Beckett, Baron Taylor of Warwick (born 21 September 1952) is a British member of the House of Lords, currently on licence from prison and suspended from Parliament[1]. He became the first black Conservative peer in 1996, after unsuccessfully standing as a Conservative 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[2] but was released under home detention curfew just 3 months later.[3]
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Taylor was born to Jamaican parents in Birmingham in 1952.[4] His father was Derief Taylor, a professional cricketer, and his mother was a nurse. Taylor attended Moseley Grammar School in Birmingham where he was head boy,[5] then Keele University where he studied English Literature and Law, followed by the Inns of Court School of Law in London.
Taylor married in 1981, he and his wife having three children together and living in Ealing. 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.[5][6]
Taylor was appointed as a part-time Deputy District Judge (Magistrates Court) in 1997.[6]
He stood unsuccessfully for the Conservatives in the 1992 general election in Cheltenham, losing to the Liberal Democrats in a campaign portrayed by outsiders as having been influenced by the issue of race,[9] with Taylor's West Indian background causing concern to some members of the local Conservative party.[10]
Taylor was made a life peer as Baron Taylor of Warwick, of Warwick in the County of Warwickshire in 1996; he was the first black Conservative peer. He was also Chancellor of Bournemouth University.[4]
On 16 July 2010, Taylor resigned the Tory Whip as he had been charged with six offences of false accounting, claiming more than £11,000 in overnight subsistence and mileage claims.[11] He appeared before the City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court in August 2010.[12]
On 25 January 2011, at Southwark Crown Court 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.[4] 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, West London.[4]
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.[4] On 31 May 2011 he was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment.[13] He was released in September 2011 after serving 3 months of this sentence, under the home detention curfew scheme.[3]
As a result of his criminal convictions, and following a report from the Privileges Committee [14] Taylor was suspended from the House of Lords for 12 months from 31 May 2011 to 30 May 2012. The report from the Privileges Committee, and the suspension, followed investigations and recommendations set out in two reports by the independent Lords Commissioner for Standards and the Sub-Committee on Lords’ Conduct.[15]
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).[4] In September 2007 Taylor was a guest presenter for Talksport while James Whale was on holiday.