The Lord Barber | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Barber in 1973 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor of the Exchequer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 25 July 1970 – 4 March 1974 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Edward Heath | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Iain Macleod | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Denis Healey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 20 June 1970 – 25 July 1970 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Edward Heath | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | George Thomson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Geoffrey Rippon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Chairman of the Conservative Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 10 January 1967 – 20 June 1970 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Edward Heath | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Edward du Cann | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Peter Thomas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister of Health | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 20 October 1963 – 16 October 1964 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Prime Minister | Alec Douglas-Home | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Enoch Powell | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Kenneth Robinson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber (1920-07-04)4 July 1920 Kingston upon Hull, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 16 December 2005(2005-12-16) (aged 85) Ipswich, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Conservative | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | Noel Barber (brother) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allegiance | United Kingdom | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1939−1945 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank |
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| Unit | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Battles/wars | Second World War (POW) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber,TD, PC, DL (4 July 1920 – 16 December 2005) was aBritish Conservative politician who served asChancellor of the Exchequer from 1970 to 1974.
After serving in both theTerritorial Army and theRoyal Air Force during the Second World War, Barber studied at Oxford and became a barrister. Elected as MP forDoncaster in 1951, Barber served in government underHarold Macmillan asEconomic Secretary to the Treasury andFinancial Secretary to the Treasury, before being appointedMinister of Health byAlec Douglas-Home in 1963. After losing his seat in 1964, he won the1965 by-election inAltrincham and Sale and returned to Parliament.
Barber was appointed asChancellor of the Exchequer byEdward Heath in 1970, and oversaw a major liberalisation of the banking system, replacedpurchase tax andSelective Employment Tax withValue Added Tax, and also relaxedexchange controls. During his term the economy suffered due tostagflation and industrial unrest, including a miners strike which led to theThree-Day Week. In 1972 he delivered a budget which was designed to return the Conservatives to power in an election expected in 1974 or 1975. This budget led to a brief period of growth known as "The Barber Boom," followed by awage-price spiral and high inflation, culminating in the1976 sterling crisis.[1] He was forced to introduce anti-inflation measures, along with aPrice Commission and aPay Board. After the Conservatives lost the first general election of 1974, he did not stand in the second election of that year.
Barber was born on 4 July 1920 inKingston upon Hull.[2] He was the third son of John Barber and his Danish wife, Musse. Barber's unusual middle names arose from his mother, who contributed the "Lysberg", and French grandmother, who contributed the "Perrinott". His father was company secretary and director of aDoncaster confectionery works. He had two brothers:Noel, who became a journalist and novelist, and Kenneth, who becamecompany secretary ofMidland Bank.[3]
Barber was educated atKing Edward VI Grammar School inRetford, Nottinghamshire.[3] He became anarticled clerk in asolicitors' firm, but joined theKing's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry shortly before theSecond World War started. He was commissioned into theTerritorial ArmyRoyal Artillery in 1939 and served in France with a unit fromDoncaster as part of theBritish Expeditionary Force.[3] He was evacuated fromDunkirk in 1940, but later he became a pilot in thePhotographic Reconnaissance Unit of theRAF. He ran out of fuel on a reconnaissance mission on 25 January 1942 and ditched near Mont St Jean, and was captured by theGermans.[3]
He wasmentioned in dispatches for helping escapees from the prison camp atStalag Luft III; he himself once escaped as far asDenmark. His PoW experiences were recalled by his friend and fellow RAF pilot PoWThomas D. Calnan who met Barber atOflag IX-A/H atSpangenberg in February 1942:
Barber is a prominent figure throughout Calnan's book:
Barber also wrote a brief foreword to this volume: "What has struck me most forcibly is how, after more than twenty years, he has recounted our adventures with such accuracy. He has managed to make a reality, once again, of the hopes and fears, the depression and the excitement which, for most of us who were there, now seems more like a dream."[6]
While still a prisoner, Barber took a law degree with first-class honours from theUniversity of London, through theInternational Red Cross.[3] On his return to England, he was awarded a state grant toOxford University, where he took a degree inPhilosophy, politics and economics in two years atOriel College, and a scholarship to theInner Temple. He then practised as abarrister from 1948, and specialised in taxation.[3] From 1967 to 1970 he was chairman of Redfearn National Glass, with which his wife Jean's family was connected.[3]
Anthony Barber stood inDoncaster at the1950 general election but lost by 878 votes. He contested the seat again at the1951 general election, however, and beat the incumbentLabourMember of Parliament,Raymond Gunter by 384 votes.[3] He held a series of offices:Parliamentary private secretary toGeorge Ward (Under Secretary for Air) from 1952 to 1958; junior Governmentwhip from 1955 to 1958; andParliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister,Harold Macmillan from 1958 to 1959. He then served four years as a junior minister in theTreasury,Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1959 to 1962, and, following the "Night of the Long Knives" on 13 July 1962, asFinancial Secretary to the Treasury from 1962 to 1963 (under the Chancellorships ofDerick Heathcoat Amory,Selwyn Lloyd andReginald Maudling).[3] He became a Cabinet minister, asMinister of Health, in 1963, but lost his seat in the Commons in the1964 general election to Labour'sHarold Walker.[3]
His absence from Parliament was short-lived, as four months later he won a1965 by-election inAltrincham and Sale caused by the elevation to the peerage ofFrederick Erroll.[3] In opposition, he ledEdward Heath's campaign to become Conservative party leader in 1965, and became party chairman in 1967. The Conservatives won the general election in 1970, and Barber held his seat until the general election ofOctober 1974, when he himself entered the House of Lords.[3]
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After winning the election in 1970,Edward Heath appointed Barber asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and gave him the responsibility for negotiating the entry of the UK into theEuropean Economic Community.[3] However, following the sudden death ofIain Macleod on 20 July, only four weeks after the election, Barber became the newChancellor of the Exchequer, although he was initially reluctant to take the job.[3] His appointment prompted Harold Wilson to remark that it was the first time that he had realised that Heath had a sense of humour. In line with the initial liberal instincts of Heath's 1970 government, he oversaw a major liberalisation of the banking system under the title of 'Competition and Credit Control', leading to a high level of lending, much of it to speculative property concerns. In his firstBudget, in March 1971, he proposed to replacepurchase tax andSelective Employment Tax withValue Added Tax, and also relaxedexchange controls; both were prerequisites to membership of the EEC.VAT came into force in 1973 at a standard rate of 10%. A year later, the rate was cut to 8%.
Barber also reduceddirect taxes. High levels of economic growth followed, but the traditional capacity constraints of the British economy - especially currency andbalance of trade concerns - quickly choked the economic boom. The banking system fell towards crisis as the bubble burst.
During his term the economy suffered due tostagflation and industrial unrest. In 1972 he delivered a budget which was designed to return the Conservative Party to power in an election expected in 1974 or 1975. This budget led to a period known as "The Barber Boom". The measures in the budget led to high inflation and wage demands from Public Sector workers. He was forced to introduce anti-inflation measures on the 6 November 1972, along with aPrice Commission and aPay Board.[7] The inflation of capital asset values was also followed by the1973 oil crisis which followed theYom Kippur War, adding to inflationary pressures in the economy and feeding industrial militancy (already at a high as a result of the struggle over theIndustrial Relations Act 1971).
In 1972, having said a week earlier in the House of Commons that he had "no reason to believe that the pound was overvalued", he floated it (most of the world currencies were fixed under theBretton Woods system at that time) "as a temporary measure". The pound immediately plunged on the markets, and it was impossible during his time as Chancellor to impose a new parity. It has remained floating ever since.[3]
Following a strike by the miners, and aThree-Day Week, Heath called for a general election on 28 February 1974 with the slogan "Who governs Britain?" The election returned a minority Labour government andHarold Wilson as Prime Minister.[3]
Barber did not seek re-election at the general election of October 1974, and left front-line politics.[3] He was made alife peer on 6 January 1975 asBaron Barber ofWentbridge in West Yorkshire,[8] and served as Chairman ofStandard Chartered Bank from 1974 to 1987, where future Prime MinisterJohn Major was his personal assistant. In 1987, he was appointed to be aDeputy Lieutenant of the County of West Yorkshire.[9] Barber was also a director ofBP from 1979 to 1988. He visitedNelson Mandela in prison, and was a member of the Franks Committee that investigated theFalklands War. In 1991, he became chair of the RAF Benevolent Association's appeal for the 50th anniversary of theBattle of Britain, which raised £26 million.[3]
In 1950, Barber married Jean Asquith, who was also a Conservative parliamentary candidate in that year's election.[3] They had two daughters and were married until her death in 1983.[10] In 1989, he married Rosemary Youens.[10]
Barber suffered fromParkinson's disease in later years, and died from bronchopneumonia atIpswich Hospital on 16 December 2005.[3]
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forDoncaster 1951–1964 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forAltrincham and Sale 1965–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1959–1962 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1962–1963 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Health 1963–1964 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman of the Conservative Party 1967–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster 1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chancellor of the Exchequer 1970–1974 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
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