Despite there being no formal announcement, I have it from an impeccable source that Alex Burghart has been appointed the new Pensions Minister.
My source describes Burgart as “bright, polite, and very capable” – so there is likely to be continuity.
Burghart is one of three appointments to the DWP ministerial team, Claire Coutinho being another.Coutinho has the disability brief.
NEW: Claire Coutinho appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State with the DWP.
No job responsiblities assigned yet.https://t.co/4VakzOUaf9
— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) September 21, 2022
Victoria Prentis is a third. She was previously a Minister at Farming, Fisheries and Food . Prentis also has no official responsibilities as yet – it was kind of her to acknowledge Guy Opperman on twitter. Like Opperman , she was a barrister and like him and Coutinho – a supporter of Rishi Sunak.
Victoria Prentis
The years spent under Frank Field at the Work and Pensions Select Committee will give Burghart a head start , one not granted his predecessor
The responsibilities for new DWP minister Alex Burghart are yet to be set out. https://t.co/mPDR1LaT6P #pensions
— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) September 21, 2022
Corporate Adviser can now be a little let cautious.
The “tip” appears to be from Steve Webb
“Assuming the new pensions minister is Alex Burghart, his experience on the DWP Select Committee will give him more background in the subject that some holders of the office!”
I hope that Steve will be as helpful to Alex Burghart as he is generally. The Diaspora of former pension ministers is closely knit, though Richard Harrington – on the only occasion I saw him after he left that post had only two words for me “Not Pensions!”
We need Opperman , Altmann and Webb working in sync especially on the challenge of sorting the state pension – which is in a pickle.
Independent inquiry?
What we do know with certainty is that the “independent” author of the DWP sponsored inquiry into the new State Pension Age is now a Senior Government Minister.
The promotion was announced after Baroness Neville-Rolfe handed in her independent state pension age report last week. Will be tricky for the Govt to now defend the independence of the report given the promotion of the author to a key Ministerial position in the Cabinet office
— Josephine Cumbo (@JosephineCumbo) September 21, 2022
It is now over a fortnight since the appointment of Liz Truss as the new prime minister. We have had our mourning and the DWP now needs to urgently attend to business.
