Gordon Johnson Borrie, Baron Borrie, (13 March 1931 – 30 September 2016) was an English lawyer and Labour Party

life peer In the United Kingdom, life peers are appointed members of the peerage whose titles cannot be inherited, in contrast to hereditary peers. Life peers are appointed by the monarch on the advice of the prime minister. With the exception of the D ...

. Born in Croydon, he was educated at John Bright Grammar School, Llandudno, North Wales. A lawyer by training, he practised at the Bar before becoming a law lecturer.

Knighted A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

in 1982, he was professor of law and dean of the faculty of law at

Birmingham University The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...

and became a

Queen's Counsel A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...

in 1986. He was a bencher of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

. As director general of fair trading, he was in charge of the

Office of Fair Trading The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) was a non-ministerial government department of the United Kingdom, established by the Fair Trading Act 1973, which enforced both consumer protection and competition law, acting as the United Kingdom's economi ...

from 1976 to 1992. He chaired the Labour Party's Commission on Social Justice from 1992 to 1994 and was created a life peer as Baron Borrie, ''of Abbots Morton in the County of

Hereford and Worcester Hereford and Worcester ( ) was an English non-metropolitan county created on 1 April 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 from the areas of the former administrative county of Herefordshire, most of Worcestershire (except Halesowen, Stourbridg ...

'' on 21 December 1995. He served on the Council of the Consumers' Association and has written on

consumer law Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent businesse ...

. He was also president of the Institute of Trading Standards from 1992 to 1996, and was chairman of the Direct Marketing Authority from 1997 to 2000. Lord Borrie was the Advertising Standards Authority's chairman from January 2001 until 2007. He was a trustee of the

Reform Club The Reform Club is a private members' club, owned and controlled by its members, on the south side of Pall Mall, London, Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it had an all-male membership for ...

. He twice stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate for the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

: in

Croydon North East Croydon North East was a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1955 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of P ...

at the 1955 general election and in Ilford South at the 1959 general election. By investigating the division between brokers and jobbers at the London Stock Exchange while at the OFT, Borrie set in motion events which would lead to

Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...

in 1986. By forcing breweries to sell their extensive pub estates, he is credited with increasing competition and diversity in the industry.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Borrie, Gordon Baron Borrie 1931 births 2016 deaths English barristers Labour Party (UK) life peers People from Croydon Alumni of the University of Manchester Academics of the University of Birmingham Knights Bachelor Lawyers awarded knighthoods 20th-century King's Counsel Members of the Middle Temple 20th-century English lawyers Life peers created by Elizabeth II Fellows of the Royal Society of Arts