Harold Lever

Harold Lever   (millionaire, politician)
Born	15 January 1914 Manchester, United Kingdom
Died	6 August 1995 (Age 81) London, England
Nationality	UK
Ethnicity	Jewish
Alma mater	University of Manchester
Siblings	Leslie Lever
Spouse	• Ethel Sebrinski • Betty Featherman • Diane Zilkha
Member of	The Other Club
Interests	Arnold Goodman
Party	Labour
Tribilderberg UK MP, The Other Club  Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster  In office 5 March 1974 - 4 May 1979 Succeeded by Norman St John-Stevas  Member of Parliament for Manchester Central In office 28 February 1974 - 3 July 1979 Preceded by Robert Carr, David Clark (MP), Ian Gilmour, Michael Heseltine, Greville Janner, Fitzroy MacLean, Reginald Maudling, David Owen, Enoch Powell, John Stonehouse, John Wilkinson  Member of Parliament for Manchester Cheetham In office 23 February 1950 - 28 February 1974  Member of Parliament for Manchester Exchange In office 5 July 1945 - 23 February 1950

Harold Lever, Baron Lever of Manchester was a UK a wealthy investor and politician, on the right wing of the Labour Party. In 1984 he was Chairman of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' commission into the Developing World Debt Crisis. The following year, 1985 he co-wrote "Debt and Danger" which advocated excusing the Developing World a debt burden which was crippling their fragile economies. He was panelist on How Should The West Deal With Developing Countries? at the 1985 Bilderberg.

Background

He was born in Manchester, the son of a Jewish textile merchant from Lithuania, and was educated at Manchester Grammar School and Manchester University. He was called to the Bar of the Middle Temple in 1935. During World War II he was in the Royal Air Force, where he held a staff job and did not see combat. His brother was Leslie Lever, Baron Lever.

Career

Lever was elected Member of Parliament for Manchester Exchange at the 1945 general election, then Manchester, Cheetham from 1950 to 1974. His brother, Leslie Lever, was elected MP for the neighbouring Manchester Ardwick seat. He promoted the Private Member's Bill that became the Defamation Act 1952.

He was Joint Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Economic Affairs in 1967; Financial Secretary to the Treasury, September 1967–69; Paymaster General, 1969–70, a Member of the Shadow Cabinet from 1970 to 1974 and Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, 1970–73. His seat changed again, becoming Manchester Central from 1974 to 1979. On Labour's return to power after the February 1974 general election, he was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1974 to 1979.

As Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, he investigated the Arts Council, of which Arnold Goodman was chairman. Goodman had "helped himself" to £1 million belonging to a wealthy client, the Portman family. Harold Lever, a good friend of Goodman, received some of this money as a "soft" loan. He duly cleared Goodman of any wrongdoing regarding the Arts Council.

He questioned the unions' influence over the party, and he found himself to the right of most of his colleagues on other issues as well. Under Jim Callaghan in the mid-1970's, he handled several sensitive assignments, including renegotiating Britain's contracts with oil companies drilling in the North Sea to meet Labor's campaign promise of getting the taxpayers a better deal. In 1976, he helped negotiate a financial assistance package for Britain from the International Monetary Fund. He was strongly pro-EEC.

Lever held a number of business appointments in the banking and journalism sectors. He was Governor of the London School of Economics from 1971, and of the English Speaking Union 1973–86. He was a Trustee of the Royal Opera House from 1974 to 1982, and a Member of the Court of Manchester University from 1975 to 1987. He was an Honorary Fellow, and Chairman of the Trustees of the Royal Academy from 1981 to 1987. He held Honorary doctorates in Law, Science, Literature and Technology and was awarded the Grand Cross, Order of Merit, Germany, 1979.

He was appointed a Privy Counsellor in 1969 and created a life peer as Baron Lever of Manchester, of Cheetham in the City of Manchester on 3 July 1979. As a Peer and elder statesman he successfully arbitrated the 1980 Steel Strike, one of the UK's longest industrial disputes. In 1983 he sat on the Franks Committee, a committee of inquiry by six Privy Counsellors into the Falklands War. In 1984 he was Chairman of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' commission into the Developing World Debt Crisis. The following year, 1985 he co-wrote "Debt and Danger" which advocated excusing the Developing World a debt burden which was crippling their fragile economies.

Personal life

His first marriage was in 1939, to a medical student, Ethel Sebrinski (née Samuel), which ended in "a friendly divorce".

In 1945, he married Betty "Billie" Featherman (née Wolfe), and they had one daughter, but Betty died of leukemia shortly after the birth.

At age 48 he married his third wife, Mrs Diane Zilkha (née Bashi), age 25, the ex-wife of Selim Zilkha. They married at the Westminster Synagogue on 15 March 1962. They had three daughters. They were married for over 30 years until his death on 6 August 1995, and lived in a 22-roomed apartment in Eaton Square, which Diane "converted ... into a palace".

He was a strong bridge player, who according to Barabara Castle "played bridge with the Establishment - his membership of a Labor cabinet was increasingly inappropriate."

He died in August 1995, aged 81.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1972	21 April 1972	23 April 1972	Belgium Hotel La Reserve Knokke	The 21st Bilderberg, 102 guests. It spawned the Trilateral Commission.
Bilderberg/1977	22 April 1977	24 April 1977	Imperial Hotel Torquay England	The 25th Bilderberg, held in Torquay, England.
Bilderberg/1985	10 May 1985	12 May 1985	New York US Arrowwood of Westchester Rye Brook	The 33rd Bilderberg, held in Canada

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