Back in September 2023 we learned that the Labour party had announced that Gill Furniss, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, had been appointed as the
“new” Shadow Pensions Minister following the Shadow Cabinet reshuffle.
Furniss took over the role from MP for Reading East Matt Rodda and was supposed to be working alongside the new Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall, who was appointed last week.
Now we learn that Gill Furniss has resigned the role for personal reasons.
Before Matt Rodda we had Jack Dromey who sadly died only 73. Before Jack we had Nick Thomas-Symonds and before him a certain Angela Rayner.
The only shadow pensions minister anyone can remember is Gregg McClymont and with good reason, he was the only one who actually thought about pensions as a vocation rather than another job. Back in 2013 he could even be found on the pages of the FT giving the Ed Miliband a pep talk. But that’s back in the day, when Pension Ministers weren’t quite so junior.
Before Gregg , Rachel Reeves held the job. She has made more noise about pensions ash shadow chancellor than she did in 2010.
When the Labour party talks about pensions , it is high level stuff about the triple-lock, on the many opportunities to press the Government, notably the issues around net pay, they have been hopeless.
Herein the problem. Pensions is a niche role which takes some getting used to. Changing shadow minister every year is not the way to create a credible opposition to what is going on in Government. Rayner and Reeves went on to greater things, so it’s not a job to turn down – it just isn’t one anyone seems to want to keep.
Frankly the parliamentary Labour party has nothing to say on the pension system since McClymont got kicked out of Cumbernauld and into a job selling infrastructure to pension schemes.
Steve Webb tries to take the role seriously when he tweets
Following the resignation of Labour’s shadow pensions minister, the appointment of her replacement will be a key decision, as this person is highly likely to be the next Pensions Minister. Hopefully it won’t simply be someone who is currently ‘available’…..
— Steve Webb (@stevewebb1) April 30, 2024
But the reality is that the only Labour MP who has experience as a pension minister is Stephen Timms and he is happily ensconced (for the moment) in the Work and Pensions Committee. I suspect that we will see a huge influx of Labour MPs when the new Government is formed and among them may be people who like McClymont, want to get stuck in.
Right now, I don’t see much hope of getting a shadow pensions minister who will do the job for any other reason than they are “available” and would like to think they might be considered for something more interesting.
Considering the wealth of brilliant Labour Lords and Ladies, you might think that we could get one or two of them a leaping. In a week when we are mourning the death of Frank Field, it would be nice to have a Labour peer, who knew what he/she was talking about, taking the shadow brief.
Pensions are all bit ‘technical’ for the average MP. But there are those of us who would like to see an incoming Labour government be really radical.
Actions:
1. Convert the range of taxpayer unfunded DB schemes to fully funded DC over time (howls of protest from all those nice consultants and others who benefit from the kindness of taxpayers). This will not only restore fairness but will start to supply funds to create new investment and revive the flagging UK stock exchange by providing serious additional liquidity.
2. Do away with higher rate tax relief on pension contributions and limit contributions per individual, and increase the ISA allowance or create a dedicated pension ISA for those who would like to put away more, but limit additional withdrawals until pension age. Many retired higher rate taxpayers would very much like TEE.
3. Progressively increase the minimum contributions to workplace pensions to a realistic level., subject to the individual cap.
4. Do away with the lifetime cap. Without the cost of higher rate tax relief, there is no reason why individuals should not save as much as they want (or can afford)
Only a Labour government could do this, since none of this will upset core working class labour voters and a Tory government could not for obvious reasons. A new Labour pensions minister should take a look at the Australian system which has been very successful but has only shown its worth over the long term 30-40 years (sadly beyond the time horizon of MPs)
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