Sally Oppenheim-Barnes

{{Short description|British politician (1928–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2025}} {{Use British English|date=November 2014}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = The Right Honourable | name = {{resize|99%|The Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes}} | honorific_suffix = PC | image = Sally Oppenheim-Barnes 1979 (cropped).jpg | caption = Oppenheim-Barnes in 1979 | office = Minister of State for Consumer Affairs | term_start = 6 May 1979 | term_end = 4 March 1982 | prime_minister = Margaret Thatcher | predecessor = John Fraser | successor = Gerard Vaughan | office1 = Member of the House of Lords | status1 = Lord Temporal | term_label1 = Life peerage | term_start1 = 9 February 1989 | term_end1 = 25 February 2019 | office2 = Member of Parliament<br />for Gloucester | term_start2 = 18 June 1970 | term_end2 = 18 May 1987 | predecessor2 = Jack Diamond | successor2 = Douglas French | birth_name = Sarah Amelia Viner | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1928|07|26}} | birth_place = Dublin, Ireland | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2025|01|01|1928|07|26}} | death_place = | party = Conservative | spouse = {{marriage|Henry Oppenheim|1949|1980|end=died}}<br />{{marriage|John Barnes|1984}} | children = 3, including Phillip }}

'''Sally Oppenheim-Barnes, Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes''', PC ({{nee}} ''' Sarah Amelia Viner'''; 26 July 1928 – 1 January 2025) was a British Conservative politician.

== Early life == Born '''Sarah Amelia Viner''' to Jewish parents (whose original surname was spelled '''Veiner'''<ref>[https://www.irishjewishroots.com/index.php?r=site/viewProfile&id=448902 Profile], irishjewishroots.com. Accessed 26 March 2025.</ref>) in Dublin on 26 July 1928,<ref name="yearofbirth">{{cite web | title = Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes, 1845-1958" index | url = https://familysearch.org/search/record/results?count=20&query=%2Bgivenname%3ASarah~%20%2Bsurname%3AViner~%20%2Brecord_country%3AIreland | publisher = FamilySearch }} * ''See also'': {{cite web | title = BIRTHS entry for Sarah A Viner; citing Dublin South, Jul-Sep 1928, vol. 2, p. 527 | url = https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/F13Z-H5P: | publisher = General Registry, Custom House, Dublin; FHL microfilm 101230 | access-date = 12 March 2014 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Happy 90th birthday to former Gloucester MP |url=https://www.punchline-gloucester.com/articles/aanews/happy-90th-birthday-to-former-gloucester-mp-baroness-sally-oppenheim-barnes |website=Punchline Gloucester |access-date=13 May 2021}}</ref> she was raised and educated in Sheffield, where her father founded a steel and cutlery company. She attended Lowther College and worked as a social worker in London before entering politics.<ref name="yearofbirth"/><ref>{{cite encyclopedia | title = Oppenheim, Sally | url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0015_0_15146.html | encyclopedia = Jewish Virtual Library }} Biodata, with year of birth given correctly as 1928.</ref> She changed her forename legally to "Sally" in 1968.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=44738 |date=19 December 1968 |page=13669 }}</ref>

== Career == At the 1970 general election, she defeated Labour candidate Jack Diamond to represent the constituency of Gloucester for the Conservative Party; Diamond was the only cabinet minister to lose his seat at that election. She continued as Member of Parliament for Gloucester until 1987 and was Minister of State for Consumer Affairs in the Department of Trade between 1979 and 1982.

She chaired the National Consumer Council from 1987–89 and was later a vice-president of the National Union of Townswomen’s Guilds and chair of the National Waterways Museum.<ref name="telegraphobit">{{cite web |title=Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes, popular and effective consumer affairs minister under Mrs Thatcher |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2025/01/02/sally-oppenheim-barnes-conservative-consumer-obituary/ |website=The Telegraph |date=2 January 2025|access-date=2 January 2025 }}</ref>

Oppenheim-Barnes was created a life peer, as '''Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes''' of Gloucester in the County of Gloucestershire, on 9 February 1989.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=51646 |date=15 February 1989 |page=1935}}</ref> Her son Phillip Oppenheim is a former Conservative MP for Amber Valley. Between 1983 and 1987 mother and son served simultaneously in the House of Commons. On 25 February 2019, she retired from the House of Lords under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2019-02-25/debates/5234E2E9-3B44-4A13-B1BB-C11AAA3A4442/RetirementOfAMemberBaronessOppenheim-Barnes |publisher=Hansard |title=Retirement of a Member: Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes |date=25 February 2019}}</ref>

== Personal life and death == In 1949, she married Henry Oppenheim, a property tycoon, with whom she had three children. Widowed in 1980, in 1984 she married her second husband, John Barnes.<ref name="telegraphobit" /> Oppenheim-Barnes died on 1 January 2025, at the age of 96.<ref>{{cite news |title=Former Gloucester MP dies |url=https://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk/former-gloucester-mp-dies/#google_vignette |access-date=2 January 2025 |publisher=Gloucester News Centre |date=2 January 2025}}</ref><ref name="telegraphobit" />

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == * {{Hansard-contribs|mrs-sally-oppenheim|Sally Oppenheim-Barnes}} * [https://archive.today/20130113230236/http://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/70sfeminism/10409.shtml Women's Rights: Radical Change] – video of Oppenheim appearing in a BBC debate first televised in 1974 *{{NPG name|id=90908}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|uk}} {{succession box | title = Member of Parliament for Gloucester | years = 1970–1987 | before = Jack Diamond | after = Douglas French }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oppenheim-Barnes, Sally}} Category:1928 births Category:2025 deaths Category:Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies Category:Life peeresses created by Elizabeth II Category:Life peers created by Elizabeth II Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers Category:Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies Category:Irish emigrants to the United Kingdom Category:UK MPs 1970–1974 Category:UK MPs 1974 Category:UK MPs 1974–1979 Category:UK MPs 1979–1983 Category:UK MPs 1983–1987 Category:Members of Parliament for Gloucester Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom Category:Jewish British politicians Category:People educated at Lowther College Category:Politicians from Sheffield Category:Politicians from Dublin (city) Category:20th-century British women politicians Category:20th-century English women Category:20th-century English politicians Category:Peers retired under the House of Lords Reform Act 2014 Category:20th-century Irish Jews Category:21st-century British Jews