I don’t spend much time on twitter any more and what I spend I follow people that I know who have influence. I have particularly respected two politicians in the last thirty years who support Labour. The first is Tony Blair , the second Torsten Bell and it this seems unfair on many others, it’s because they have had a way of projecting themselves which I understand. They are not the same and this week’s seen Blair speak out against what he sees and Bell stands for (new and newer labour if you like). What is here is Torsten Bell explaining how the Labour Government he’s a part of is not what Blair and those with him want.
Tony Blair’s missing project – @TorstenBell writes in @ArguablyMag that Blair has failed to grapple with the real choices on austerity, welfare, tax and energy. https://t.co/hRy3hPw245
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) May 27, 2026
The link is to the article but I find Bell’s series of tweets that followed.
Tony Blair is right about the politics of the 2020s, but his essay doesn’t have a project that fits what the country needs today.
Britain’s economy is being held back by collapsing public services. From energy to health, we must become a country that invests in our future again. pic.twitter.com/HnNRRP6KMP
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
The call for reinvestment in our infrastructure is what we have heard since Torsten Bell took over as Pensions Minister.
Blair putting on full display what is in many ways his special ability – to lay out a political argument grounded in his own view of global trends (globalisation in the 2000s, tech in the 2020s). But… https://t.co/0ByQyoH3as
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
The truth, awkwardly for an essay that argues that policy not politics must come first, is that this is an essay that puts politics not serious policy first
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
There are areas where the essay is clearly right:
– lots done on planning but more to do. Yep.
– on economic geography gaps recognising that infrastructure is key (a significant shift towards govt given TB previously focused too narrowly on ‘skills’)— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
But let me focus on some of the real problems with an analysis that rightly calls calls for a deep engagement with substance but does not live up to its own advice
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
Most importantly higher debt interest costs (a global trend reinforced by scale of debt rise under the last government). This alone has driven taxes up by 2% of GDP since the late 2010s and has to be wrestled with not ignored as the essay does
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
The upward pressure on taxes is added to by the inevitability of unwinding the extremes of austerity for public services reached in 2018 – a level of austerity that was politically, economically and socially unsustainable.
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
It’s okay for the Tories/Times/Telegraph to pretend that taxes are up “because of welfare”. That’s politics. But if you care about policy you need to understand that is a long way from the truth – and wrestle with the consequences
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
2. The essay calls for VAT to have been increased. It does so in the middle of the 2020s, when countries are facing the biggest period of inflationary pressure for decades = a recipe for much higher interest rates with absolutely nothing pro-business about it
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
3. There is no real policy on energy here. Which reflects the failure to recognise the real pressure on bills is twofold. Our
– reliance on hydrocarbons
– need for investment in energy generation/distribution (in part because of a criminal lack of investment in 2010s & 2000s)— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
4. On foreign policy, the essay reiterates a (long held and broadly correct) view that Britain should not look to choose between Europe and the US
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
But the critique of today’s foreign policy choices is backed by a deep inconsistency, wanting:
– a conditional relationship with Europe (largely based on EU tech policy)
– an unconditional one with the US (pro-enabling an Iran conflict that has done huge damage to global economy)— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
As I said, where the essay is much better is the politics – not shallow personality politics but what the 2020s requires of successful political leaders. Blair is entirely right to say that requires having “an attitude, a tribe and a project.”
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
That is the right diagnosis when the technocratic consensus based politics of the 2000s is long gone. The challenge for the essay is that it doesn’t have a project that remotely fits the time and place we are living in. Saying ‘AI’ is not the same as having a plan for Britain.
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
In summary, this is in many ways an impressive attempt to engage with some of the big forces shaping our future. But, as Tony Blair would probably be the first to admit, governing requires a much grittier engagement with the world as it is, not as you might prefer it to be
— Torsten Bell (@TorstenBell) May 27, 2026
I have said consistently since he arrived as our Pension Minister that we have in Torsten Bell an articulate and thoughtful man who can go on to do much more than he has done in pensions.
We are lucky to have him at the moment and will miss him when he moves on. But he has left the fulfillment of what was originally put in place by Webb and was progressed by Opperman. Private and public pensions have progressed, but private pensions in particular.
In the context of what we’ve seen as him in a Minister, his wider political position revert back to his statement he made in 2024, his book “Great Britain- How We Get Our Future Back”.
If this blog sounds a hagiography, it is not. He can be arrogant and short with people. He is not tolerant of weakness. But I think he is worthy of being considered one of the best pension ministers we have had and that after less than two years in parliament.
Torsten Bell’s battle with Tony Blair hi-lites their likeness and their contrast.
