Greg Barker, Baron Barker of Battle

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Gregory Leonard George Barker, Baron Barker of Battle, Template:Post-nominals (born 8 March 1966) is a British Conservative Party politician, life peer, and businessperson. In May 2010 he was appointed Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, a role in which he served until 2014. At the following year's general election he stood down as MP for Bexhill and Battle and was appointed to the House of Lords.

Early life and education

Born in Sussex, Barker attended Upper Beeding Primary School, Steyning Grammar School and Lancing College. In 1987, he earned a bachelor's degree in history and politics from Royal Holloway College, London.[1] In 1990–91, he attended a corporate finance programme at London Business School.[2]

Early career

Barker was a researcher at the Centre for Policy Studies in 1987, before joining Gerard Vivian Gray[3] as an equity analyst in 1988, and was a member of the Honourable Artillery Company between 1989 and 1994. In 1990, he became the director for International Pacific Securities. He was the deputy chairman of Hammersmith Conservative Association in 1993. From 1998, he was a director of Daric plc, an advertising company.

Barker worked as Head of International Investor Relations for the Sibneft Oil Group, owned by Roman Abramovich, from 1998 to 2000.[4][5]

Career

House of Commons

Barker was at first unsuccessful in his attempts to be elected to Parliament when he contested the safe Labour seat of Eccles in Greater Manchester, where he was defeated by Ian Stewart. Barker then became the deputy chairman of Tooting Conservative Association and an advisor to Conservative MP David Willetts.

File:From left to right John Sweeney and Gregory Barker MP.jpg
Barker (right) at the 2011 Conservative Party Conference

In 2001, Barker became the MP for Bexhill and Battle after the retirement of the sitting Conservative MP, Charles Wardle. Barker's nomination by the Conservative Party was hotly debated when sitting MP and former Home Office minister Charles Wardle accused Barker of being disingenuous about his business career and after the election, formally requesting new Conservative Party Leader Iain Duncan Smith to investigate possible links between Barker and the Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky.[6] Wardle supported Nigel Farage (who later became the Leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party), but Barker won the safe seat securing over 10,500 votes ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate, Stephen Hardy.

Close to Conservative leader David Cameron, Barker, in his capacity as Shadow Environment Minister (which he served in from 2005 to 2008), accompanied Cameron on his trip to the Arctic Circle in April 2006 for a fact-finding mission about global warming.

Barker was implicated in the 2009 MPs' expenses scandal for his purchase and sale of a London flat; this led to widespread outrage from tax payers.[7][8]

In 2010, he became a Minister of state under Chris Huhne at the Department for Energy and Climate Change.[9]

Projects that he pursued included the Green Investment Bank,[10] Renewable Heat Incentive [11] and Capital Markets Climate Initiative.[12][13] Green Investment Bank was later privatized over his objection [14] and is now known as Green Investment Group.
During his tenure, he was accused of using a staff microwave to warm a cushion for his dog, Otto.[15]

In April 2011, Barker told an audience at the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina that the Conservative-led British government was "making cuts that Margaret Thatcher, back in the 1980s, could only have dreamed of." [16]

On 5 February 2013 Barker voted in favour in the House of Commons Second Reading vote on marriage equality in Britain.[17]

File:Lord Howell and Greg Barker meeting Andre Amado (5169591926).jpg
Barker with Lord Howell meeting Andre Amado of the Brazilian Ministry of External Affairs on 12 November 2010.

On 14 July 2014, he announced he would not be standing at the 2015 general election.[18]

In November 2014, Mayor of London, Boris Johnson appointed Barker as the new chairman of the London Sustainable Development Commission. He led the organisation in its goal to ensure environmental challenges were prioritised across London, where an estimated population growth of 11 million people (37%) by 2050 was reported.[19]

House of Lords

In August 2015, Barker was nominated for a life peerage in the Dissolution Peerages List.[20] On 12 October 2015, he was created Baron Barker of Battle, of Battle in the County of East Sussex.[21] On 10 November of that year, he was introduced to the Lords. He was supported during the ceremony by John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley, and Guy Black, Baron Black of Brentwood.[22]

In February 2019, Barker took a leave of absence from the House of Lords upon accepting an executive chairmanship position with the En+ Group.[23] Barker was credited with having helped the Russian company to have the US sanctions lifted earlier that year, for which he was awarded a bonus of about £3–4 million (US$3.9–$5.2 million) that he described as "relatively modest".[24][23]

Business

Barker was appointed as Independent Chairman of the Board of Directors of En+ Group in October 2017, a company owned by the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who sits on the U.S. sanctions list.[2][25] In February 2019, he was appointed as Executive Chairman of the Board.[2] In March 2022 he resigned as chairman of EN+. The Guardian wrote, "The new company [a company En+ is considering setting up] would be owned by management and non-Russian investors, and potentially led by Barker, according to a report by Bloomberg News that was referenced by EN+. It would take on Rusal's alumina, bauxite and aluminium assets across the world, including in Africa, Australia and Europe."[26]

Barker was appointed Chairman of The EV Network, a developer of EV charging stations, in 2017.[27][28]

In June 2021, Lord Barker was additionally appointed as co-chair of the World Bank Group's Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) alongside Chile's Minister Juan Carlos Jobet, with whom he shared duties in opening discussions around issues such as post pandemic transitioning to Net Zero and universal carbon pricing,[29] something of which Barker was a strong proponent.[30] He stated: "This should be a bipartisan issue... I'm not a believer in a one size fits all. There will be different applications of carbon price depending on the country or the community that it's aimed at, but the underlying principle that you should put a price on dangerous carbon pollution to drive investment away from fossil fuels and into exciting clean areas of the economy has to be right."[31]

Personal life

Barker married Celeste Harrison, an heiress to the Charles Wells brewery fortune, in 1992. Following a diary report in The Observer,[32] Barker confirmed he and his wife had separated, and on 26 October 2006 the tabloid newspaper the Daily Mirror revealed that he had left his wife and children for vintage fashion expert William Banks-Blaney. The paper backed the story by quoting his mother-in-law.[33] The Independent on Sunday later reported that Barker has confirmed that he is gay.[34]

In 2009, Barker's wealth was estimated at £3.9 million.[35]

In December 2022, Barker married his long-time domestic partner, George Prassas.[36][37]

References

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External links

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Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Member of Parliament for Bexhill and Battle
2001–2015 Template:S-ttl/check 		Template:S-aft/check Succeeded by
Preceded byTemplate:S-bef/check Gentlemen
Baron Barker of Battle Template:S-ttl/check

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  1. ↑ Election highs for Royal Holloway alumni Template:Webarchive Royal Holloway University of London, 19 October 2007
  2. ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  23. ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  24. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  25. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  26. ↑ Tory peer Greg Barker resigns as chair of Russian firm EN+ The Guardian
  27. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  28. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  29. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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  33. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  34. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  35. ↑ Samira Shackle, Stephanie Hegarty and George Eaton The new ruling class Template:Webarchive New Statesman, 1 October 2009
  36. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  37. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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