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	(1971-03-18) 18 March 1971 Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse(s)	Peter J Colley
Children	1 son, 1 daughter
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford, Birkbeck, University of London

Katharine Anne Ussher (born 18 March 1971) is a British economist and former Labour Party politician who is now Managing Director of Tooley Street Research. She is also a member of the Financial Services Consumer Panel, Chief Economic Adviser for Portland, a member of TheCityUK's Independent Economists' Panel and has associate arrangements with a number of London-based think-tanks.

After training as an economist, she was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Burnley from 2005 until 2010, succeeding Peter Pike. She served as a minister in Gordon Brown's Government from 2007–09, mainly at the Treasury but also at the Department for Work and Pensions. She did not stand in the 2010 election citing the desire for a more normal family life while her children were young.

Biography

Ussher is the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lawyer father, and headmistress mother whose brother is Peter Bottomley. Consequently, this makes her the niece of the former Conservative cabinet minister, Virginia Bottomley and the granddaughter of the diplomat Sir James Bottomley. She is also (many generations back) descended from the family of Archbishop James Ussher. She was educated on a free place at the independent St Paul's Girls' School, and Balliol College, Oxford, where she read PPE, and Birkbeck College, London, where she took a MSc in Economics.

Career

In her early career she worked as chief economist for Britain in Europe and as an economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Centre for European Reform as well as for MPs Paul Boateng, Martin O'Neill, Kim Howells and Adam Ingram. From 2001 until her selection as a parliamentary candidate in 2004 she was special adviser to Patricia Hewitt in the Department of Trade and Industry. She also served as a councillor in the London Borough of Lambeth for Vassall ward from 1998 to 2002 where she chaired the finance and environment scrutiny committees. In 2010, after leaving Parliament, Ussher became the new Director of Demos until 2012. She then became a fellow of the Smith Institute, an associate at the Centre for London, a member of The City UK's Independent Economists' Panel and a co-founder of Labour in the City. In 2013, she became Managing Director of Tooley Street Research and gives economic and policy adviser to Portland. She has also written pamphlets for the Fabian Society, Social Market Foundation and Policy Network. In February 2015 she joined the Financial Services Consumer Panel, a scrutiny panel for the Financial Conduct Authority regulator.

Parliamentary career

Ussher was elected as the member of Parliament for Burnley at the 2005 general election, having been selected as the Labour candidate for the constituency through an All-Women Shortlist. From 2005 – 2006 she was a member of the Public Accounts Committee. She was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Hodge MBE 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 Economic Secretary to the Treasury, succeeding Ed Balls. The timing of her appointment gave her a ringside seat at the credit crunch, party to crucial meetings of the Tripartate 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.

Her time 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 2009 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 The Times' city diarist Martin Waller as "one of the brighter denizens of the lower depths of the Brown administration" who had "made herself popular enough in the City". She became responsible for the government's review of housing benefit policy and a review of the social fund, as well as the Child Support Agency and welfare policy on lone parents.

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

Expenses controversy

Main article: United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal

On 17 June 2009 Ussher resigned her ministerial position, citing a desire to "prevent embarrassment to the government" after allegations that she changed the designation of her "main" home for capital gains tax purposes to reduce her tax bill. In her resignation letter Ussher said that she had done nothing wrong but four years later in an article on her blog she said she had nevertheless voluntarily paid the £3,420 in question to HMRC 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, and I did not focus on that." On 5 June 2009 the police at Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement stating that the incidents of flipping second homes to avoid paying capital gains tax was not a matter for police investigation.

After she stood down at the 2010 election, Labour lost Ussher's constituency of Burnley to the Liberal Democrats.

Publications

• City Limits: The progressive case for financial services reform. Demos, 2011.
• Good Growth: A Demos and PWC report on economic wellbeing. Demos, 2011.
• Labour's Record on the Economy. The Political Quarterly, 2010
• Wealth of our nation: rethinking policies for wealth distribution. The Smith Institute, 2014
• Pay progression: Understanding the barriers for the lowest paid. Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2014

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).

External links

• Official website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics – Ask Aristotle: Kitty Ussher MP
• HM Treasury page
• TheyWorkForYou.com – Kitty Ussher MP
• Family tree
• BBC Politics page

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Pike	Member of Parliament for Burnley 2005–2010	Succeeded by Gordon Birtwistle
Political offices
Preceded by Ed Balls	Economic Secretary to the Treasury 2007–2008	Succeeded by Ian Pearson
Preceded by James Plaskitt	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions Reform 2008–2009	Succeeded by Helen Goodman
Preceded by Angela Eagle	Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury 2009	Succeeded by Sarah McCarthy-Fry