Jay, Douglas Patrick Thomas (1907–1996)

British Labour politician. Elected member of Parliament for Battersea North in a 1946 by-election, he held the seat (known from 1974 as the Battersea division of Wandsworth) until 1983. Jay was financial secretary to the Treasury 1947–50 and shadow spokesperson on trade and treasury affairs 1951–62. Under Harold Wilson, Jay was president of the Board of Trade from 1964 until being sacked in 1967. Jay stood out as an opponent of the UK's entry into the European Economic Community (he campaigned for a ‘no’ vote in the 1975 referendum).

Jay was educated at Winchester and Oxford, emerging at the close of the 1930s as one of a generation of bright Labour economists, such as Hugh Gaitskell and Evan Durbin. He worked for The Times 1929–33, The Economist 1933–37, and Daily Herald 1937–41. He worked at the Board of Trade from 1943 and was personal assistant to prime minister Attlee after 1945.

Jay published various works, notably The Socialist Case (1937) and Socialism in the New Society (1962). In 1980, he published his memoirs, Change and Fortune. Baron 1987.