John Laird, Baron Laird

John Dunn Laird, Baron Laird, FRSA, of Artigarvan (23 April 1944 – 10 July 2018) was a Northern Irish politician, life peer and former chairman of the cross-border Ulster-Scots Agency. In 2013 Laird allegedly offered to lobby for a firm against parliamentary rules. Consequently, he resigned from the Ulster Unionist Party.[1]

For other people named John Laird, see John Laird (disambiguation).

The Right Honourable Professor
The Lord Laird
Member of the House of Lords
In office
16 July 1999 – 10 July 2018
Member of the Northern Ireland Parliament
for Belfast St Anne's
In office
12 November 1970 – 31 March 1972
Preceded byNorman Laird
Succeeded byParliament suspended
Personal details
Born
John Dunn Laird

23 April 1944
Died10 July 2018(2018-07-10) (aged 74)
Belfast, Northern Ireland
NationalityBritish
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations		Ulster Unionist Party (until 2013)
OccupationPolitician
Websitewww.lordlaird.co.uk

Career

Whilst Chairman of the Ulster Young Unionist Council in 1970, Laird became the youngest member of the Parliament of Northern Ireland, after winning the seat of Belfast Saint Anne's in a by-election caused by the death of his father, Dr Norman Laird OBE.

He was expelled from the Ulster Unionist Parliamentary Party in January 1972 when he voted for a Democratic Unionist Party censure motion opposing a ban on certain processions planned for The Twelfth.[2] He topped the poll in Belfast West in the 1973 Northern Ireland Assembly election opposed to the proposals of the former Prime Minister Brian Faulkner. He repeated this feat as an Ulster Unionist candidate in the 1975 Constitutional Convention election.

He established John Laird Public Relations in 1976, which, now called JPR,[3] is Northern Ireland's longest established PR company still in existence.

He was created a life peer on 16 July 1999 as Baron Laird, of Artigarvan in the County of Tyrone.[4]

Laird studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution.

Ulster Scots

A proponent of Ulster Scots as a language, Lord Laird wanted road signs in Irish, English and Ullans on all roads in Ireland, as "parity of esteem" as signed up for under the Good Friday Agreement. Similarly, he said that the Garda Síochána should be renamed to An Garda Síochána/Hannin Polis.[5] Laird served as head of the Ulster-Scots Agency, before resigning in April 2004, in protest at a cut in government funding for the agency.[6]

Lord Laird found himself at the centre of a minor scandal in 2005, when it was revealed that while chairman of the Ulster-Scots agency, Laird had spent in excess of £2500 of public money on taxis between Belfast and Dublin.[7]

House of Lords

Laird sat in the House of Lords as an independent.[8] Laird used parliamentary privilege to speak out against the Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the House of Lords. In May 2005 he claimed that Phil Flynn, an advisor to the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, was active in the IRA.[9] In December that year he said that there were 200 IRA "sleepers" in high places in the Republic of Ireland.[10] In November 2007 he again used parliamentary privilege to name senior IRA members who he said were responsible for the murder of south Armagh man Paul Quinn in October.[11]

Investigation into "paid advocacy" and suspension

In June 2013, following investigations by undercover reporters from the Sunday Times, The Telegraph, and the BBC, in which he was filmed agreeing to arrange for questions to be raised in Parliament in exchange for a monthly retainer of £2,000, Laird relinquished the Ulster Unionist Party whip and referred himself to the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards.[12]

On 18 December 2013, the ruling by the Lords Committee for Privileges and Conduct resulted in a four-month suspension House of Lords.[13][14]

Expenses

Laird claimed parliamentary expenses of £73,000 in 2008/09, making him the most expensive peer in the House of Lords for that parliamentary year.[15]

2007 election: Donegal

In December 2006 Laird announced plans to stand in Donegal North-East and Donegal South-West on what he termed a radical Ulster-Scots ticket. He said he intended to use the publicity platform of his candidacy to highlight what he called the double standards of the Irish Government in relation to the Ulster-Scots movement. However, after suffering a mild heart attack he did not stand.[16]

Publications

The following is a list of books, plays, and films for which Lord John Laird has been responsible:

  • Videos Trolleybus Days in Belfast (1992)
  • Swansong of Steam in Ulster (1993)
  • Waterloo Sunset (1994)
  • Rails on the Isle of Wight (1994)
  • The Twilight of Steam in Ulster (1994)
  • A Struggle to be Heard – by a True Ulster Liberal (2010)

Arms
Coat of arms of John Laird, Baron Laird
Crest
A cat statant guardant Gules clasping in the dexter forepaw a thistle slipped and leaved Proper.
Escutcheon
Argent two bars wavy Vert between six sinister hands couped at the wrist appaumy three two and one Gules.
Supporters
Dexter a sea pegasus Gules maned unguled and with a tail fin and supporting with the exterior hoof a wheel Argent sinister a sea pegagus Argent maned unguled and with a tail fin and supporting with the exterior hoof a wheel Gules.
Motto
Forrits Wi Jonick[17]

See also

References
  1. "BBC News – Three peers 'offered to lobby for fake firm'". Bbc.co.uk. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  2. Northern Ireland Parliamentary Election Results: Boroughs: Belfast Archived 22 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine Election Demon
  3. JPR NI.
  4. "No. 55559". The London Gazette. 21 July 1999. p. 7857.
  5. "Campaigning lord demands we mind our language". Gaelport.com. Archived from the original on 30 November 2007. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  6. "Ulster-Scots chairman resigns". BBC News. 23 April 2004. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  7. "Agency spending". Archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com. 9 February 2005. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  8. Parliament: Northern Ireland: One brief debate transfers Ulster back to its people, The Independent, 1 December 1999.
  9. Devenport, Mark (25 May 2005). "Privilege used to allege IRA link". BBC News. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  10. 200 IRA moles in government, claims peer, Irish Independent, 25 December 2005.
  11. Republicans 'involved in killing', BBC News, 13 November 2007.
  12. "UUP suspends Lord Laird from Westminster team". BBC News. 3 June 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  13. "Lord Laird suspended from Lords". Strabane Chronicle. 20 December 2020. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
  14. "The conduct of Lord Laird - Annex 2: Report by The House of Lords Commissioner for Standards". Parliamentary Business - Committee for Privileges. December 2013.
  15. "Expense claims: Lord Laird most expensive peer". BBC News. 11 December 2009. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
  16. UU peer recovering from heart attack Archived 28 September 2011 at the Wayback Machine, UTV News, 20 January 2007.
  17. Debrett's Peerage. 2003. p. 930.
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