Douglas Jay, Baron Jay

Douglas Patrick Thomas Jay, Baron Jay, PC (23 March 1907 – 6 March 1996) was a British Labour Party politician.

Educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, Jay won the Chancellor's English Essay in 1927 and gained a First in Literae Humaniores ('Greats') in 1929. He was a Fellow of All Souls 1930–37. His early career was as an economics journalist working for The Times (1929–33), The Economist (1933–37) and the Daily Herald (1937–41), then as a civil servant in the Ministry of Supply and the Board of Trade, from 1943 as personal assistant to Hugh Dalton.

In The Socialist Case (1937) he wrote: "in the case of nutrition and health, just as in the case of education, the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people know themselves". This statement was mercilessly exploited by the Conservatives and won him long-lasting notoriety; it has often been paraphrased as "the man in Whitehall knows best".

Jay was elected member of Parliament for Battersea North at a by-election in July 1946, representing the Labour Party, and held the seat until the constituency was abolished at the 1983 general election.

Alongside Evan Durbin and Hugh Gaitskell, he brought the thinking of John Maynard Keynes to the Labour Party, especially in relation to price determination. Later his views somewhat changed, as he became influenced by the successful operation of rationing during the war. He served as Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 1947 to 1950, Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1950 to 1951 and President of the Board of Trade from 1964 until being sacked in 1967. He was sworn of the Privy Council in 1951.

He was opposed to the UK's entry into the European Communities, and campaigned for a 'no' vote in the 1975 referendum.

Jay was created a life peer as Baron Jay, of Battersea in Greater London, on 8 October 1987.

His first wife was the councillor Peggy Jay; their son is the economist Peter Jay, who married (and later divorced) Margaret Callaghan, daughter of James Callaghan with whom Douglas Jay had served in government. Douglas Jay's second wife, Mary Thomas, had been one of his assistant private secretaries at the Board of Trade.