Helen Whately, Andrew Griffith and now Peter Bedford are in place, they are three appointments that I hope will motivate the Labour Government to work hard to resist. If these three made it to Government, it would be bad for pensions.
I have written recently of my distaste for Andrew Griffiths, his flirtation with Reform but worse with Liz Truss and her disastrous Chancellor. I have written of Helen Whately, who I think has little grasp of what the Pensions Act is about and no interest in collective pensions.
Now we have a new shadow Pensions Minister in Peter Bedford MP.
The man who brought us this clause last year – now shadow Pensions Minister!
This was posted back in November 2025 when the Conservatives were looking to find something to rival Collective Pensions and the Pension Schemes Act , this did not quite make the grade.
David Robbins’ sarcasm is latent but ill-disguised
Despite this, Peter Bedford has been promoted to shadow pension minister and no doubt he’ll be making appearances at a Conference near you.
🚨 Appointment as Shadow Pensions Minister
I’m honoured to have been appointed Shadow Pensions Minister.
As a chartered accountant who spent 17 years in the private sector before my election to Parliament, I don’t take this role lightly.
Too many people across the country… pic.twitter.com/ka9u7ktKJW
— Peter Bedford MP (@PeterABedford) September 2, 2026
We have had some decent conservative pension ministers in the lower chamber. Starting with Guy Opperman, succeeding with Laura Trott and with one or two blips, ending with the charming Paul Maynard. Of these , only Laura Trott remains in parliament and she’s shadow Secretary of State for Education. In short, we had some respect for our conservative pension ministers . Guy and Paul hang around, Paul has a nice piece in Prof Pens tucking into Andy Burnham whose a fellow man from the north west. A Tory Blackpool MP – now there’s a thing!
