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 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.
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. He won the safe seat securing over 10,500 votes ahead of the Liberal Democrat candidate,Stephen Hardy.
In 2006,as Shadow Environment Minister,he accompanied then-opposition leader David Cameron to the tourist destination of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean,[6] where Cameron was photographed driving a dog sled.[7] The dogsled excursion allowed them to view the Scott Turner Glacier,which is said to have lost 50% of its mass in the past 100 years as a result of climate warming.[8]
In 2009,The Telegraph reported that Barker was implicated in the parliamentary expenses scandal because he claimed reimbursement for a secondary residence in London while his primary residence in East Sussex was occupied by his estranged wife.[9] The scandal resulted in a large number of resignations and prosecutions,with several members sent to prison. A parliamentary committee demanded repayments from numerous members,some approaching £10,000. The committee's comment on Barker,however,was "Mr Barker has no issues."[10]
The British press was not finished with Barker's London flat. The next year,a newspaper in his constituency of East Sussex reported that HM Revenue and Customs was demanding capital gains tax from his sale of the flat,reporting that he had made a profit of £320,000 in just over two years of ownership. The flat,which had been listed as a secondary residence for parliamentary purposes,was listed as a primary residence for tax purposes. There was no discussion of whether the two definitions of "primary residence" were the same. Barker replied that the profit was attributable to renovations he had made,and was thus not capital gain. Nonetheless,he announced that he was making a “voluntary payment”,reported to be in the tens of thousands of pounds,to settle the matter.[11]
Boris Johnson would later have a similar problem with the American IRS,which would lead him to renounce his US citizenship.[12]
On 14 July 2014,he announced he would not be standing at the 2015 general election.[14]
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.[15]
During his tenure,he was accused of using a staff microwave to warm a cushion for his dog,Otto.[22]
In 2012,he accepted additional responsibility as Minister for Business Engagement with India. The next year,he joined with MP Virendra Sharma to confer a Lifetime Achievement Award on the late Jawaharlal Darda,considered an Indian national hero for his role in ending British rule.[23] In 2014,he was a member of a delegation to India headed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.[24]
In February 2019,Barker took a leave of absence from the House of Lords upon accepting an executive chairmanship position with the En+ Group.[28] 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 £3–4million (US$3.9–$5.2million) that he described as "relatively modest".[29][28]
Business
Barker was appointed non-executive chairman of Russian aluminium and hydropower firm En+ Group in October 2017,being promoted to Executive Chairman in 2019 before leaving in 2022. As chairman,he presided over the first IPO by a Russian company in London since 2014.[4] Six months later,the company was sanctioned by the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control because of the large ownership stake of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. Barker responded with the "Barker plan",which reduced Deripaska's holdings from around 70% to below 45%.[30] The US treasury lifted the sanctions early in 2019,citing this and a commitment to "unprecedented transparency" and an assurance that a majority of the directors will always be independent of Deripaska,who remained under his own personal sanction.[31]
Barker was appointed Chairman of The EV Network,a developer of EV charging stations,in 2017.[32][33]
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,[34] something of which Barker was a strong proponent.[35] 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."[36]
Personal life
Barker married Celeste Harrison,an heiress to the Charles Wells brewery fortune,in 1992. Following a diary report in The Observer,[37] 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.[38]The Independent on Sunday later reported that Barker has confirmed that he is gay.[39]
In 2009,Barker's wealth was estimated at £3.9million.[40]
In December 2022,Barker married his long-time domestic partner,George Prassas.[41][42]
↑ "David Cameron Driving a Dog-sled". PA Images. Retrieved 8 July 2025. Leader of the Conservative Party David Cameron driving a Dog-sled on his way to the Scott-Turner glacier on the island of Svalbard, Norway.
↑ Watt, Holly (9 May 2009). "Greg Barker: The £320,000 profit on flat bought with taxpayer help". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 7 May 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2010. He moved house after leaving his wife Celeste in October 2006 following an affair with William Banks-Blaney, an interior designer, but he still claims the house he shares with her and their three children in Peasmarsh, East Sussex, as his main home.
↑ "MP will pay thousands to taxman". Brighton Argus. 16 May 2009. Archived from the original on 5 October 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2010. the MP insisted he had done nothing wrong, arguing that there had been a very substantial sum of his own money involved that he did not claim for, and said the difference in the purchase and sale price did not represent a profit.
↑ Wood, Robert W. (10 July 2022). "Boris Johnson's Big Win? He Beat IRS". Forbes. Retrieved 21 July 2025. [in a ] 2014 interview ... Johnson complained that he has been hit with IRS demands for capital gains tax. The IRS taxed the sale of his first home in the U.K., even though under UK law it was not subject to tax in England!
↑ "Green campaigners await spending review with trepidation". The Guardian. 18 October 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2025. Huhne, the junior Decc minister Greg Barker and Letwin are all fighting the Treasury's plans to convert it from a bank into a fund that would simply corral together money already committed by the government.
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