Alfred Barnes (Labour politician)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For other persons named Alfred Barnes, see Alfred Barnes (disambiguation).
Alfred John Barnes (1887 – 26 November 1974) was a British Labour and Co-operative politician.
Barnes worked originally as an artist in gold and silver. He was heavily involved in the co-operative movement. He was chairman of the London Co-operative Society for nine years until 1923 and was a founder of the Co-operative Party. He became the Party's chairman in 1924 and served until 1945. He was also a director and President of the National Cooperative Publishing Society.
In November 1922, Barnes was elected as Member of Parliament for East Ham South. In 1925 he was appointed a Labour Whip and served as a whip in Government, as Junior Lord of the Treasury. However, he was forced to resign in October 1930 - although his position as a director of the National Cooperative Publishing Society was unpaid, parliamentary rules dictated that a minister cannot be a director of a public company (although they could be of a private company): Barnes chose to remain on the co-op board rather than as a whip. Like many Labour MPs, he lost his seat in the 1931 general election but regained it in 1935.
In 1945, Barnes was made a Privy Counsellor and Minister of War Transport, later Minister of Transport, serving until the fall of the Labour government in 1951. He stood down as a Member of Parliament in 1955.
[edit] References
- The Times Guides to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1945, 1950, 1951
- (2003) The Times Guides to the House of Commons, 1929, 1931, 1935, Politico's Publishing (reprint). ISBN 1-84275-033-X
- This page incorporates information from Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.
