BARNETT, JOEL, BARON

BARNETT, JOEL, BARON (1923– ), British politician. Educated in Manchester and by profession an accountant, Joel Barnett was a Labour member of Parliament from 1964 until 1983. After serving as an Opposition spokesman on economic affairs from 1970 to 1974, Barnett held office as chief secretary to the Treasury from March 1974 until the fall of the Labour government in May 1979. From February 1977 until May 1979 he served in James Callaghan's cabinet. Barnett is probably best known for devising the Barnett Formula, under which grants to Scotland and Wales were greater per capita than grants to England, in order to reflect the geographical problems of service provision in these two areas. He is the author of Inside the Treasury (1992) and was given a life peerage after he retired from the House of Commons in 1983. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)