Kitty Ussher

Kitty Ussher
Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
In office 9 June 2009 – 17 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Angela Eagle
Succeeded by	Sarah McCarthy-Fry
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
In office 5 October 2008 – 9 June 2009
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	James Plaskitt
Succeeded by	Helen Goodman
Economic Secretary to the Treasury
In office 29 June 2007 – 5 October 2008
Prime Minister	Gordon Brown
Preceded by	Ed Balls
Succeeded by	Ian Pearson
Member of Parliament for Burnley
In office 6 May 2005 – 12 April 2010
Preceded by	Peter Pike
Succeeded by	Gordon Birtwistle
Personal details
Born	Katharine Anne Ussher (1971-03-18) 18 March 1971 Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Peter J Colley
Children	1 son, 1 daughter
Relatives	Peter Bottomley (uncle) Virginia Bottomley (aunt)
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford, Birkbeck, University of London

Katharine Anne Ussher (born 18 March 1971) is a British economist, former MP and Treasury minister who is the former Chief Executive and now the Chief Economist at Demos think tank.

After training as an economist and working as a macroeconomic forecaster at the Economist Intelligence Unit , she was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Burnley at the 2005 general election, succeeding Peter Pike. Seen as a high flier, she went on to serve as a minister in Gordon Brown's government from 2007 to 2009, mainly at the Treasury, but also at the Department for Work and Pensions, having previously been a Special Advisor at the Department for Trade and Industry. At the time she was the second-youngest government minister, and the youngest woman.

Ussher resigned from her ministerial role in 2009. She did not stand at the 2010 election, citing the desire for a more normal family life while her children were young. Since, she has worked primarily in public policy thought leadership, at Demos and as Managing Director of Tooley Street Research .

Biography

Ussher is the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lawyer father and a headmistress mother whose brother is Peter Bottomley. Consequently, she is a niece of the former Conservative cabinet minister Virginia Bottomley, and a granddaughter of the diplomat Sir James Bottomley. She is also distantly descended from the family of Archbishop James Ussher.

Ussher was educated on a free place at the independent St Paul's Girls' School; she subsequently attended Balliol College, Oxford, where she read PPE, and Birkbeck College, London, where she took a MSc in Economics.

Early career

In her early career, she was chief economist for Britain in Europe and an economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Centre for European Reform, as well as working for MPs Paul Boateng, Martin O'Neill, Kim Howells and Adam Ingram.

From 1998 to 2002 she also served as a councillor for Vassall ward in the London Borough of Lambeth, where she chaired the Council's Finance and Environment Scrutiny Committees. From 2001, until her selection as a parliamentary candidate in February 2004, she was special adviser to Patricia Hewitt at the Department of Trade and Industry.

Parliamentary career

Ussher was elected as the member of Parliament for Burnley at the 2005 general election, having been selected through an All-Women Shortlist as the constituency's Labour candidate. The new intake of MPs was called the brightest for a generation .

From 2005 to 2006, Ussher was a member of the Public Accounts Committee. She was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Hodge, the Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, until 29 June 2007.

In Gordon Brown's first reshuffle, she was appointed as City Minister, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, succeeding Ed Balls. The timing of her appointment, as the first signs of the credit crunch appeared, meant that she was party to crucial meetings of the Tripartite Committee of Treasury, FSA and the Bank of England as the authorities dealt with the collapse of Northern Rock, the subsequent financial crisis and its legislative response. She chaired the Treasury Islamic Finance Group , leading to the issuance of the first sukuk government bond, co-chaired with Hector Sants the official High-Level Working Group on the efficiency of the UK capital-raising process and co-chaired with Sir Michael Snyder the High-Level Working Group on the professional services sector .

Her period in office also saw a review of the policy towards co-operatives and credit unions, to give them greater commercial freedom and ability to expand. She also developed the policy leading to the Dormant Bank and Building Society Accounts Act 2008 that redistributes unclaimed banking assets to community use, and the Savings Gateway Act 2009 that provides financial incentives to poorer people to save.

On 5 October 2008, she moved to become Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Work and Pensions, taking on broad welfare reform responsibilities previously undertaken by Stephen Timms and James Plaskitt. At the time of the reshuffle, she was described by Martin Waller, city diarist of The Times, as "one of the brighter denizens of the lower depths of the Brown administration" who had "made herself popular enough in the City".

In the June 2009 reshuffle she was moved back to the Treasury, this time promoted to Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, but ten days later resigned to prevent embarrassment to the government regarding her tax position, and was replaced by Sarah McCarthy-Fry, the MP for Portsmouth North.

Expenses controversy

Main article: United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal

Ussher resigned as a minister in June 2009, noting that technically she had done nothing wrong but citing a desire to "prevent embarrassment to the government" after allegations that she also changed the designation of her home for tax purposes. Ussher lived in both London and Burnley and had designated her Burnley house as the main residence prior to its sale .

In her resignation letter Ussher wrote that it was: "with the greatest regret that I have decided to resign from the government. After careful consideration I arrived at this decision because I do not want to cause you or the government any embarrassment. I did not do anything wrong. At all times my actions have been in line with HM Revenue and Customs guidance and based on the advice of a reputable firm of accountants who in turn were recommended to me by the House of Commons fees office. Neither have I abused the allowance system of the House of Commons in any way... As you know I also decided some time ago, completely for family reasons, that I would not be putting my name forward to contest the next general election. The hours of Parliament simply don't work with kids.".

In his reply to her resignation letter, Brown praised her "contribution to government", adding: “I respect your decision to leave parliament at the time of the next general election.” .

Commenting on her resignation, the BBC described her as a "rising star" who had risen quickly through the ranks, despite only being elected in 2005.. The Independent newspaper commented that her departure from the Government and the Labour benches was a blow to Gordon Brown. “At 38, she was one of his youngest ministers and had been marked out for a bright future having already taken on jobs at the Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions.” .

Four years later in an article on her blog she said she had voluntarily paid the amount in question to HMRC of £3,420, stating that "public servants should always be at pains to ensure that they are not only compliant with the letter of the law but also with the spirit of it". .

Later career

In May 2010, after leaving Parliament, Ussher became the new Chief Executive of Demos until 2012 . She then became a research fellow of the Smith Institute, an associate at the Centre for London, a member of TheCityUK's Independent Economists' Panel, and a co founder of Labour in the City.

In December 2013, she became Managing Director of Tooley Street Research, and economic and policy adviser to Portland Communications. She has also written pamphlets for the Fabian Society, the Social Market Foundation and Policy Network and for the FT.

In February 2015, she joined the Financial Services Consumer Panel, a scrutiny panel for the Financial Conduct Authority regulator. Between 2017-19 she spent two years working as an inner city maths teacher, as part of the inaugural cohort of Now Teach, a scheme to encourage older professionals to switch careers into teaching, stating in her blog that she “thought she should do something useful” .

Personal life

She married accountant Peter J Colley in September 1999 in Hammersmith; they have one daughter (born 7 June 2005) and a son (born 3 January 2008).

Publications

• The Learning Curve (co-author), Demos, 2020
• Improving pay, progression and productivity in the retail sector, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 2016
• Pay progression: Understanding the barriers for the lowest paid. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2014
• Wealth of our nation: rethinking policies for wealth distribution. The Smith Institute, 2014
• Good Growth: A Demos and PWC report on economic wellbeing. Demos, 2011
• City Limits: The progressive case for financial services reform. Demos, 2011
• Labour's Record on the Economy. The Political Quarterly, 2010

External links

• Official website
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Kitty Ussher MP
• Family tree