923 Jabez Balfour

Constituency : Tamworth  1880-5, Burnley  1889-93

Jabez  took  over  from  Robert  Peel  at  Tamworth.  He  turned  out  to  be  one  of  the  Liberals'  more  notorious  MPs.

Jabez  was  the  son  of  a  Commons  official. His  mother  was  a  temperance  campaigner  from  a  staunch  Congregationalist  background. He  was  educated  in  France  and  Germany. In  1870  he  and  a  group  of  associates  took  over  the  Liberator  Building  Society  which  aimed  to  help  Nonconformists  of  modest  means  acquire  their  home . It  became  the  largest  building  society  in  the  country . Jabez  held  14  directorships  and  was  a  noted  philanthropist. His  companies  built  some  impressive  buildings  in  London  such  as  Whitehall  Court. He  lived  lavishly as  a  country  squire  in  Oxfordshire. In  1876  he  bought  a  couple  of  coal  mines.

However  it  was  all  based  on  accounting  fraud. His  companies  largely  traded  with each  other, transferring  over-valued  assets  as  different  accounting  dates  demanded.  Money  that  was  supposed  to  go  to  allowing  people  to  buy  homes  went  to  property  companies  for  rental. Incompetent  auditors  such  as  Jabez's  tailor  rubber  stamped  his  accounts.

In  1883  Jabez  became  mayor  of  Croydon  and  stood  for  the  borough  in  1885. He  was  unsuccessful  there  in  1885   largely  because  he  opposed  a  new  railway  for  the  town,  having  shares  in  the  existing  one. He  lost  in  Walworth  in  1886. He  deserted  Croydon  for  its  "ungrateful  treatment"  of  him  in  1887. He  was  defeated  at  a  by-election  at  Doncaster  in  1888  but  was  elected  unopposed  at  Burnley  the  following  year. He  was re-elected  with  a  huge  majority  in  1892. He  also  became  president  of  Burnley  FC.

As  a  Liberal  Jabez  supported  disestablishment  of  the  church, female  suffrage  , Home  Rule  and  an  end  to  hereditary  peerages. He  was  a  convincing  orator  on  public  platforms. However  he  made  little  contribution  in  Parliament.

Jabez  trusted  that  rising  property  values  would  cover  his  unjustified  withdrawals  but  a  slump  in  1890  undid  his  empire. In  1892  Jabez's  dodgy  dealings  were  identified  and  he  fled  to  Argentina. With   no  extradition  treaty  in  place  Jabez  was  physically  apprehended  by  an  intrepid  officer  from  Scotland  Yard  and  brought  back  for  trial.  A  friend  of  Jabez's  was  actually  killed  in  the  process. In  1895 he  was  sentenced  to  14  years  in  prison. Thousands  of  small  investors  were  left  penniless  by  the  collapse  and  some  committed  suicide.

Jabez's  memoirs  were  serialised  in  the  Weekly  Despatch  when  he  was  released  from  prison  in  1906.

Jabez  was  a short  rotund  man.

In  1915  aged  71  Jabez  went  off  to  work  in  a  tin  mine   in  India  but  the  manager  thought  he  was  unfit  to  work. The  following  year  he  died  of  a  heart  attack  on  a  train  taking  him  to  another  mining  job  in  Wales.