With a record number of millionaires in the Cabinet, it would be easy to write Gregory Barker off as yet another stereo-typically wealthy Tory. But we should judge the man by his actions, not his bank balance.
Before embarking on a career in politics, Greg Barker spent around 15 years working in oil, finance and communications.
Educated at Lancing College and Steyning Grammar School in Sussex, Barker went on to study history and politics at Royal Holloway. After graduating in 1987 he worked briefly for the Centre for Policy Studies before going on to spend ten years in the City working for Gerrard Vivian Gray and International Pacific Securities where he was corporate finance director, specialising in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He also spent time as an associate partner of the financial PR firm, Brunswick.
Barker’s next steps were in the oil industry where he was appointed head of communications at Anglo-Siberian Oil. He then took up the position of head of international investor relations at Sibneft, the Russian oil company owned by everyone’s favorite oligarch, Roman Abramovich. In 2005 Sibneft was bought by Gazprom - Russia’s state-controlled natural gas monopoly - which is now planning to drill in the Arctic.
In 2000 Barker led a management buy-in of the recruitment advertiser Bartlett Scott Edgar. The company was then sold to TMP worldwide in 2001 and counts GCHQ and the Army among its clients.
It was also in 2001 that Barker was elected MP for Bexhill and Battle, succeeding Conservative MP, Charles Wardle who had stepped down that year.
Barker served on the House of Commons Environmental Audit select committee between 2001 and 2005 and was appointed to the Opposition Front Bench as a Conservative whip in 2003.
He resigned in July 2005 to help run David Cameron's leadership campaign and remains loyal to the PM. His appointment to Shadow Minister for Climate Change & Environment came in December 2005 and shortly after Barker could be seen sledging with David Cameron on their photogenic husky-based fact-finding jaunt to the Arctic.
Barker was involved in the passage of the Climate Change Bill through the House of Commons in 2008 and participated in the Conservative Party's 'Low Carbon Economy' green paper.
In his current job he counts helping secure £1bn for a carbon-capture programme and £3bn for the Green Investment Bank among his major achievements.
Barker told the Daily Telegraph that he wanted Britain to “become the Saudi Arabia of green energy” and hopes that London will soon be the “global hub of green finance”.
The minister has narrowly avoided scandal on a couple of occasions. Once when Charles Wardle cast aspersions on Barker’s relationship with Russian tycoon, Boris Berezovsky - Barker claims to have only met Berezovsky once - and on a second occasion when The Guardian revealed documents purporting to show a cosy relationship between Barker and external consultant, Miriam Maes.
In both cases impropriety was flatly denied and no action was taken.
Barker’s past shows him to be a man with fingers in many pies and his entry in the Register of Members Interests reveal even more - in addition to his Ministerial salary he receives income from property; from advisory roles; and – keeping up his exceptional Russian connections- from his position as director of a Russian-run company called Mottra: “purveyors of exceptional caviar”.
