Matthew Talbot Baines PC QC DL (17 February 1799 – 22 January 1860) was a British lawyer and Liberal politician.

Baines then turned to politics and was elected to parliament for Kingston upon Hull in 1847, a seat he held until 1852,[3] and subsequently represented Leeds until 1859.

[4] Only two years after entering the House of Commons, he was appointed President of the Poor Law Board[5] in the Whig administration of Lord John Russell.

[6] The Liberals fell from power in February 1852, but in December of the same year he was once again appointed President of the Poor Law Board,[7] this time in the coalition government headed by Lord Aberdeen.

Baines remained as head of the Poor Law Board when Lord Palmerston's became Prime Minister in February 1855.