Will the real pensions minister please step forward?

Posted on July 10, 2024 by henry tapper

I was asked at yesterday’s Pension PlayPen coffee morning if there was a book running on who will be the new pensions minister. I don’t think there is one, but if there were, Steve Webb wold be running it.

There have been three announcements of DWP ministers. Stephen Timms became the odds-on favorite having twice won the race before.

But no announcement of Timms taking on the role has been forthcoming and Steve Webb equivocated

By Tuesday he had moved on

Bryn Davies or Jeannie Drake?

Or perhaps Baroness Sherlock?

But late in the day, a new runner entered the ring, with dual entries in both the Treasury and DWP

Sir Steve wasn’t Threadneedle parliamentary personality of the year in 2016 for nothing. He knows the whiff of junior pension minister in the air and Emma Reynolds, rather than Stephen Timms or Alison McGovern (both ministers at DWP) was the new favorite. The ABI and Phoenix are seldom wrong in identifying key players in the pension psychodrama.

“Real Experience” was at City UK, a financial services lobbying group where she worked until May,

However there is a fourth DWP Minister and Sir Steve is canny enough not to rule out the outsider, Andrew Western.

We will probably know today who will be Pensions Minister and whether – for the first time there is a pension minister in both the DWP and Treasury. I think that would be rather fun, especially if it were the same person.

But like Steve, I will be politic and conclude that any of McGovern, Western , Timms and Reynolds would be an improvement on the shambles stalemate of the past twelve months.

We wish ministers past a fond farewell, Paul Maynard and Guy Opperman are now back in civvy street, Alex Burghardt continues to sit on one of the few big Tory majorities remaining while Ros Altmann is a peer for life. Ros and Steve (Conservative and Liberal respectively) are the principal pension experts left in parliament (other than Stephen Timms). I am sorry to see Nigel “candy-crush” Mills has lost his seat in Farnborough, we need a new Work and Pensions Committee.

Bell

My left-field prediction of Torsten Bell may not yet have won his parliamentary spurs but that is only a matter of time. He is already the inside commentator on economic policy

The book

Emma Reynolds – Evens

Stephen Timms – 5/4

Alison McGovern- 20-1

Andrew Western – 20-1

Torsten Bell – 25-1 (with a run)

Baroness Sherlock 50-1

The announcement on who will be running the review of workplace pensions has yet to be made. Bell is a lot shorter price for that.

 

 

About henry tapper

Founder of the Pension PlayPen,, partner of Stella, father of Olly . I am the Pension Plowman
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2 Responses to Will the real pensions minister please step forward?

  1. Julius Pursaill says:
    July 10, 2024 at 7.32

    Please let’s not forget Baroness Drake!

    Reply
  2. pcbpensin says:
    July 10, 2024 at 7.32

    The joint appointment suggests to me that The Treasury by having an embedded minister in the DWP wish to force changes onto the engrained departmental thinking of the DWP. Whether that is on pensions or on employment and welfare matters remains to be seen.

    I previously recounted my experience where Gordon Brown’s Treasury effectively removed a regulatory regime operated by another Department. The regulated bodies were very surprised that the initial contact was made by an official (an under-secretary I seem to recall) from the Treasury. On being queried about his involvement, the official explained he spent half his time in the Treasury and half his time in the relevant Department.

    Which of the 2004 Acts ultimately had most impact on pensions – The Pensions Act or the Finance Act?

    Reply

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