Education
He was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he gained an exhibition and Master of Arts in Law.
He was educated at Charterhouse School and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he gained an exhibition and Master of Arts in Law.
During his time at Cambridge, he helped to launch the Cambridge University Industrial Society, a student group, which subsequently spread to many other United Kingdom universities. He was Chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association and was elected an officer of Cambridge University Students’ Union. He was seconded to the British Steel Corporation to work with Sir Ian MacGregor.
He was appointed Managing director of British Steel Service Centres Limited and later appointed Commercial Director British Steel, establishing joint ventures in China, Turkey, Europe and North America.
After British Steel, he managed a number of private steel and manufacturing businesses. In 2002 he was appointed chairman of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital National Health Service Trust, resigning in November 2006.
He was acting chairman of the Conservative Party in 2001. On 14 November 2006, he was arrested, among others, by Norfolk Constabulary investigating allegations of financial irregularities at Cawston Park Hospital previously known as Cawston College, a private psychiatric hospital in Cawston, Norfolk.
He was cleared of involvement in the alleged fraud on 15 February 2007 and subsequently reappointed as chairman of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital National Health Service Trust.
In 2009, he was invited to be Chairman of Ormiston Victory Academy in Norwich. He founded and chairs two free schools the Jane Austen College, Sir Isaac Newton Free School, a six form college specialising in sciences and mathematics, he is also the chairman of Norwich Primary Academy. In 2012, he became a Trustee of the Inspiration Trust.
On 28 January 2013 he was appointed as Chairman of the Care Quality Commission.
He was said by the Health Service Journal to be the 23rd most powerful person in the English National Health Service in December 2013. In April 2014 he had a hip replacement operation paid for by private insurance but was treated in a public ward at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital National Health Service Trust.
In March 2015 he told a conference that "the role of the market is hugely limited in health and social care, in part because many of the people who need care the most – as many homeless people are – are often unheard. They have no power. The market requires people with power, people who can choose.
In healthcare that’s not the case.” His stance appeared to conflict with the assumptions underlying the Health and Social Care Acting 2012.
On 14 May 2015 David Prior was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health in David Cameron"s Conservative ministry and subsequently created a Life Peer as Baron Prior of Brampton, of Swannington in the County of Norfolk on 29 May 2015. He was reckoned by the Health Service Journal to be the twelfth most influential person in the English National Health Service in 2015.
He served as Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for North Norfolk from 1997 until the 2001 general election, when he lost his seat to Norman Lamb of the Liberal Democrats by 483 votes.
52nd United Kingdom Parliament]
From 1977-1980, he worked for the investment banks Lehman Brothers and Lazard Freres in New York, training as an investment banker, and qualified as a barrister in 1976, becoming a member of Gray’s Inn. He was elected as Member of Parliament for North Norfolk in 1997 and he became Chief Executive of the Conservative Party and its deputy chairman and a member of the trade and industry select committee.