By William James and Matt Scuffham
LONDON, June 16 (Reuters) - Andrew Tyrie is a Conservativelawmaker, but this week fellow party member and finance ministerGeorge Osborne will be taking a deep breath as Tyrie'scross-party committee on British banking reform unveils itsfinal report.
Osborne, who created the Parliamentary Commission on BankingStandards after Barclays was found to have manipulatedglobal interest rate benchmarks, is expected to adopt many ofits recommendations to try to rein in risky banking practices.
But that will not happen before each line of what isexpected to be a 600-page report has been scrutinised by Tyrie -the group's leader renowned for his attention to detail.
"Dealing with hundreds of authors over the years, he'scertainly one of my most clear-headed, fastidious andpainstaking," said Tim Knox, director of the Centre for PolicyStudies - a think-tank for which Tyrie has written extensively.
"It always ends with the best of humour but he's quiteprepared to argue half the night over whether a comma should bea semi-colon - which is reflective of the seriousness with whichhe takes his work."
Tyrie was blooded in British politics during the era offormer Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher when he served as anadviser to then-finance minister Nigel Lawson.
"I think that he combined a very clear understanding ofeconomics with very good political judgment and, as he isshowing today with the commission, a huge capacity for hardwork," Lawson, a member of the commission, said
PRAGMATIC
Before teaming up with Lawson, Tyrie alternated betweenacademia with stints at Oxford and Cambridge universities, and ashort period at British Petroleum. He later left the tutelage ofLawson to work as a senior economist at the European Bank forReconstruction and Development.
A return to politics came later when, at the second attemptin 1997, he was elected to parliament. Tyrie represents a ruralconstituency in the south of the country - a traditionalheartland of support for the Conservatives.
Tyrie has proven to be fiercely protective of his politicaland intellectual independence. When a BBC report suggested hehad changed his critical view of Conservative growth strategy asa result of party pressure, Tyrie fought for and won a publicretraction from the state broadcaster.
Overlooked for a frontbench role in 2010 when theConservative party formed a coalition government, Tyrie insteadturned his focus to winning the chair of the Treasury SelectCommittee (TSC), a cross-party group of lawmakers which overseesthe work of the finance ministry.
Tyrie's work on the TSC made him the obvious candidate tohead the Banking Standards Commission, on which five TSC memberssit, supplemented by five members of Britain's upper houseincluding Lawson and Justin Welby, spiritual leader of theAnglican church.
"He realises that if he tried to impose his opinion theywouldn't take too kindly. So he tries to coax an agreement, anagreement based on the evidence," Lawson said.
Commission members agreed early in the process that theydidn't want to put forward any proposals without the fullbacking of members.
"There are some big, big personalities on the commission,very strong personalities, and Andrew has been taking everybodywith him. That's an important point," said commission memberMark Garnier, a former investment banker.
"BEING CONTROVERSIAL"
Tyrie's work has not been constrained to banking and financeduring his political career. In 2005 he formed a parliamentarygroup looking at Britain's involvement in "extraordinaryrendition" - whereby prisoners are transported to be questionedabroad without legal process.
The group has been credited with casting a light onBritain's role and turning political and popular opinion.
Similarly, Tyrie went out on a political limb to voteagainst his party's wishes on a climate change bill in 2008. Hesaid a commitment to decarbonise Britain's energy industry wouldput the country at an international disadvantage.
"He has no fear of fighting received opinion and beingcontroversial, but is incredibly careful to be scrupulouslyaccurate," think-tank director Knox said.
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