Of the 243 Labour MPs who were elected for the first time at last year’s general election, it is Torsten Bell who has arguably had the most meteoric rise.
Bell – a former adviser to Alistair Darling when he was chancellor and Ed Miliband when he was opposition leader – was made pension minister in January.
He has now risen further, with Rachel Reeves elevating him in the Treasury to take on additional responsibility for economic policy and to help construct this autumn’s Budget.
The move has split Labour MPs, with some hailing his “strong economic brain” but others reporting that it has “gone down like a led balloon” in some quarters of the party.
Torsten and his brother, Olaf – a career civil servant currently working in Downing Street – have been described as the most powerful twins in Whitehall.
Joining the Civil Service with his brother after Oxford, he was talent-spotted by Darling, who appointed him as a special adviser during the 2008 financial crisis.
He became director of policy to Miliband when he was leader of the opposition – a role in which he was blamed for conceiving the infamous Ed Stone – and after Labour’s defeat in the 2015 election, became chief executive of the Resolution Foundation think-tank.
His journey back to the frontline of British politics was secured last year when he was controversially parachuted into the seat of Swansea West for the election despite lacking links to the area.
Some Labour MPs have welcomed the news of his enhanced role in this autumn’s Budget preparations.
One MP said the most striking thing about Bell was his “boundless energy”.
“He’s incredibly energetic. You can see that when you see him in the tearoom, when you see him out and about. He’s always thinking, he’s always got ideas,” they said.
The MP said the Chancellor had brought him into her inner circle to give herself greater policy heft.
“He’s spent getting on for 20 years now in and around Budgets and economic policy.
“I think the Chancellor has seen that experience and obviously knows him well, and is going to benefit from that experience, understanding the process, the trade-offs, thinking about all the different decisions and trying to make sure that we get a really strong Budget that’s focused on the things that we need to do for the country.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be calling for a radical change in approach. He’s fiscally conservative like the Chancellor is, he’s pro big increases in public investment like the Chancellor is.
“It’s about, what are the things the Chancellor knows she wants to do – can he help get the system into a place alongside the other advisers that it can do the things that she wants to do?”
MPs in the Labour Growth Group caucus are hopeful that his appointment marks a greater sense of urgency from the Government when it comes to trying to revive the moribund economy.
One MP in the group said: “Torsten’s a very smart guy. There’s not many who dispute that. He’s been thinking about a lot of this stuff for years.
“He gets the growth agenda… this is about maintaining people’s dwindling faith in the democratic system. He’s someone who is on that level of understanding with it.”
A backbencher said: “He has a strong economic brain. I’m not aware of anyone with a stronger sense of what is required economically.”
Conerns over tax rises
However, they added a note of caution. During his free-thinking stint at the Resolution Foundation, Bell proposed various tax rises, from cutting the threshold for VAT registration to charging national insurance on rental income – a potential Budget tax hike which has surfaced in the press in recent days.
Right-wing media outlets have taken great relish in producing long lists of all of the tax increases which Bell has previously advocated.
Other Labour MPs doubt whether he is the right man to sell a Budget to the public. An awkward interview on Newsnight in March – when Bell admitted he could “absolutely not” live on £70 a week in benefits – was seen as encapsulating his flaws. In this regard, his involvement with Miliband’s ill-fated leadership is counted against him.
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One MP claimed there was significant concern about his appointment. “The Torsten stuff’s gone down like a led balloon,” they said. “He’s someone very academically smart [but] not the best communicator in terms of people.
“What does that mean for the Budget? Are they trying to manage the civil servants, is that what they’re trying to do? Or are we not trying to develop a transformative Budget that we can sell to people, the grafters and hard workers of this country, in a way that they might understand?”
The MP added: “To focus on how the Budget will land with the Resolution Foundation versus how it will land with the general public. Interesting choice.”
For his supporters, the characterisation of Bell as a coldly robotic policy wonk, or a tax-raising zealot, are both wide of the mark.
On the first charge, one Labour MP said: “He is quite good fun… he’s quite Tiggerish.”
Another supporter said: “The reception to the news about Torsten which has been unfair is all this characterisation of every tax rise that he ever had his name next to at the Resolution Foundation, as if that’s all the guy is about
“There is cause for hope that we can see a step-change towards being more ambitious, radical and not taking no for an answer on some of the stuff that we need to do.”
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