Anthony Barber

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other people named Anthony Barber, see Anthony Barber (disambiguation).

Frederick Erroll
Succeeded byFergus Montgomery
Member of Parliament
for Doncaster
In office
25 October 1951 – 25 September 1964
Preceded byRay Gunter
Succeeded byHarold Walker
Personal details
Born
Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber

(1920-07-04)4 July 1920
Kingston upon Hull, England
Died16 December 2005(2005-12-16) (aged 85)
Suffolk, England
Political partyConservative
Spouses
Jean Asquith
​
​
(m. 1950; died 1983)​
Rosemary Youens
​
(m. 1989)​
Children2
RelativesNoel Barber (brother)
Alma mater
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch/service
Years of service1939−1945
Rank
Unit
Battles/warsSecond World War (POW)

Anthony Perrinott Lysberg Barber, Baron Barber,

DL (4 July 1920 – 16 December 2005) was a British Conservative politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer
from 1970 to 1974.

After serving in both the

Altrincham and Sale
and returned to Parliament.

Barber was appointed as

Pay Board
. After the Conservatives lost the first general election of 1974, he did not stand in the second election of that year.

Birth and early life

Barber was born on 4 July 1920 in Kingston 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 a Doncaster confectionery works. He had two brothers: Noel, who became a journalist and novelist, and Kenneth, who became company secretary of Midland Bank.

Barber was educated at

RAF. He ran out of fuel on a reconnaissance mission on 25 January 1942 and ditched near Mont St Jean, but was captured by the Germans
.

He was mentioned in dispatches for helping escapees from the prison camp at Stalag Luft III; he himself once escaped as far as Denmark. His PoW experiences were recalled by his friend and fellow RAF pilot PoW Thomas D. Calnan who met Barber at Oflag IX-A/H at Spangenberg in February 1942:

"Complete uniforms were rare in our party, the one outstanding exception belonging to Tony Barber, who was resplendent in an Army lieutenant's uniform, complete with Sam Browne."[3]

Barber is a prominent figure throughout Calnan's book:

"It was natural that Charles Hall, Tony Barber and I should plot escape together. We had known one another at Benson, before being shot down and we still felt that we all belonged to the same unit."[4]

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."[5]

While still a prisoner, Barber took a law degree with first-class honours through the

Oriel College, and a scholarship to the Inner Temple. He then practised as a barrister from 1948, and specialised in taxation
. From 1967 to 1970 he was chairman of Redfearn National Glass, with which his wife Jean's family was connected.

House of Commons

Anthony Barber stood in

Minister of Health, in 1963, but lost his seat in the Commons in the 1964 general election to Labour's Harold Walker
.

His absence from Parliament was short-lived, as four months later he won a

Ted 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 of October 1974
, when he himself entered the House of Lords.

Chancellor of the Exchequer

After winning the election in 1970,

VAT
came into force in 1973 at a standard rate of 10%. A year later, the rate was cut to 8%.

Barber also reduced direct taxes. High levels of economic growth followed, but the traditional capacity constraints of the British economy - especially currency and balance 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 to

Pay Board.[6] The inflation of capital asset values was also followed by the 1973 oil crisis which followed the Yom Kippur War, adding to inflationary pressures in the economy and feeding industrial militancy (already at a high as a result of the struggle over the Industrial 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 floated 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.

After a strike by the miners, and a Three-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 and Harold Wilson as Prime Minister.

Later years

Barber did not seek re-election at the general election of October 1974, and left front-line politics. He was made a

Deputy Lieutenant of the County of West Yorkshire.[8] Barber was also a director of BP from 1979 to 1988. He visited Nelson Mandela in prison, and was a member of the Franks Committee that investigated the Falklands War. In 1991, he became chair of the RAF Benevolent Association's appeal for the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, which raised £26 million.[citation needed
]

He suffered from Parkinson's disease in later years, and died in Suffolk in 2005. He was married twice, with two daughters from his first marriage.

References

  1. S2CID 152522190
    .
  2. ^ "Lord Barber". The Daily Telegraph. London. 19 December 2005. Retrieved 12 September 2019.
  3. ^ Calnan (1973), p. 49
  4. ^ Calnan (1973), p. 65
  5. ^ Calnan (1973), p. 1
  6. ISBN 9780140179125
    available, not checked].
  7. ^ "No. 46459". The London Gazette. 9 January 1975. p. 309.
  8. ^ "No. 50816". The London Gazette. 29 January 1987. p. 1185.

Further reading

  • Calnan, Thomas D. (1973). Free as a Running Fox. Pan Books.
  • Dell, Edmund. The Chancellors: A History of the Chancellors of the Exchequer, 1945–90 (HarperCollins, 1997) pp. 258–82, covers his term as Chancellor.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Doncaster
1951–1964 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
Frederick Erroll
Altrincham and Sale
1965–1974
 Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by
Frederick Erroll
 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
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