Joel Barnett, Baron Barnett, (14 October 1923 – 1 November 2014) was a Labour Party politician. As

Chief Secretary to the Treasury The chief secretary to the Treasury is a ministerial office in the government of the United Kingdom. The office is the second most senior in the Treasury, after the chancellor of the Exchequer. The office was created in 1961, to share the burde ...

in the late 1970s, he devised the

Barnett Formula The Barnett formula is a mechanism used by the Treasury in the United Kingdom to automatically adjust the amounts of public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to reflect changes in spending levels allocated to publi ...

that allocates public spending in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.Lord Barnett, creator of formula for UK spending allocations, dies
''BBC News'', 3 November 2014

Career

Barnett was born in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

, the son of Jewish tailor Louis and wife Ettie, and was educated at Badkindt Hebrew School and Manchester Central High School."Lord Barnett - obituary"
''The Telegraph'', 3 November 2014 He worked as an accountant. He was elected a councillor on Prestwich Borough Council 1956-1959 and was treasurer of

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...

. Barnett stood in

Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

without success. He was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for Heywood and Royton in

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarc ...

. He was a member of the Public Accounts Committee from January 1966. Barnett served as

from 1974 to 1979, gaining a seat in the cabinet from 1977 onwards, and was Denis Healey's right-hand man in the

Callaghan Government Callaghan most commonly refers to O'Callaghan, an Anglicized Irish surname. Callaghan may also refer to: Places * Callaghan, New South Wales, Australia * Callaghan, Edmonton, Canada * Callaghan, Virginia, United States * Callaghan, Texas, United ...

. During this time he oversaw the devising of what is known as the

by which public spending is apportioned between England,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

, and

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. He subsequently joked about the strange and unexpected form of immortality that was accorded to him by "having his own formula". Following the

Scotland Act 1998 The Scotland Act 1998 (c. 46) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which legislated for the establishment of the devolved Scottish Parliament with tax varying powers and the Scottish Government (then Scottish Executive). It was o ...

and devolution, he argued that the Formula was unfair to England and should be abandoned or revised. He reiterated this view in 2014 shortly before the

Scottish independence referendum A referendum on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland be an independent country?", which voters answered with "Yes" or "No". The "No" side wo ...

, calling the Formula unsustainable and saying it had become an embarrassment. Barnett held the Chairmanship of the Public Accounts Committee from 1979 to 1983. He published a memoir ''Inside the Treasury'' in 1982, describing his experience as chief secretary.Lord Barnett obituary
''The Guardian'', 3 November 2014 Barnett's Commons seat having been abolished by boundary changes, he was created a life peer as Baron Barnett, ''of Heywood and

Royton Royton is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, with a population of 21,284 in 2011. Close to the source of the River Irk, near undulating land at the foothills of the South Pennines, it is northwest of Old ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport, Tam ...

'' on 30 September 1983. He served on

select committees Select or SELECT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Select'' (album), an album by Kim Wilde * ''Select'' (magazine), a British music magazine * ''MTV Select'', a television program * ''Select Live'', New Zealand's C4 music program ...

in the House of Lords including the

European Union Committee The European Union Committee is a select committee of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Its terms of reference are "To consider European Union documents and other matters relating to the European Union", as well as "to ...

, the Economic Affairs Committee and the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. He was appointed vice-chairman of the

Board of Governors of the BBC The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replace ...

by Conservative Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

in 1986 and held the post until 1993, during which period he partook in the private meeting when Chairman

Marmaduke Hussey Marmaduke James Hussey, Baron Hussey of North Bradley (29 August 1923 – 27 December 2006), known as Duke Hussey, was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC from 1986 to 1996, serving two terms in that role. Education and career The so ...

told Director-General Alasdair Milne he would have to leave the BBC.DG: The Memoirs of a British Broadcaster. p. 201. He died on 1 November 2014, aged 91.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Joel 1923 births 2014 deaths BBC Governors British Jews Councillors in Greater Manchester Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Labour Party (UK) life peers Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Oldham Politics of the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale UK MPs 1964–1966 UK MPs 1966–1970 UK MPs 1970–1974 UK MPs 1974 UK MPs 1974–1979 UK MPs 1979–1983 Jewish British politicians Chief Secretaries to the Treasury