Kitty Ussher | |
|---|---|
 Ussher in 2009 | |
| 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 5 May 2005 – 12 April 2010 | |
| Preceded by | Peter Pike |
| Succeeded by | Gordon Birtwistle |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Katharine Anne Ussher 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-in-law) |
| Alma mater | Balliol College, Oxford, Birkbeck, University of London |
Katharine Anne Ussher (born 18 March 1971) is a British economist, public policy research professional and former politician. In November 2023 she moved from being chief economist at the Institute of Directors to Managing Director, Group Head of Policy Development at Barclays.[1] She was previously a Labour Party MP and Treasury minister, and later Chief Executive of the Demos think tank.[2] She was a Non Executive Director with the UK subsidiary of the fintech Revolut from 2020-23, and is a current NED at the local authority pension pooling company, London CIV.[3] In 2023 she was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.[4]
After training as an economist and working as a macroeconomic forecaster at the Economist Intelligence Unit,[5] 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.[5] At the time she was the second-youngest government minister, and the youngest woman.
Ussher resigned from her ministerial role in 2009 following her involvement in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal in which it was reported she had taken action on the advice of her accountants to reduce her capital gains tax liability.[6] She did not stand at the 2010 election, citing the desire for a more normal family life while her children were young.[7][8][9] Since then, she has worked primarily in public policy thought leadership, at Demos, as Managing Director of Tooley Street Research, [5] and at the Institute of Directors. In August 2021, she predicted that unemployment would not rise when the coronavirus furlough scheme ended at the end of the following month.[10] At the time this was out of step with most economic forecasts; however, when the official ONS data were released four months later, her prediction was shown to be correct.[11] In September 2023 she was the only one out of nine members of The Times shadow monetary policy committee to correctly anticipate the Bank of England's decision that month to hold interest rates at 5.25% after 14 consecutive rate rises.[12]
- ^ "LinkedIn".
- ^ "Kitty Ussher". Demos. Archived from the original on 28 February 2020. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
- ^ "Kitty USSHER personal appointments - Find and update company information - GOV.UK".
- ^ "Academy of Social Sciences".
- ^ a b c "Kitty Ussher : Chief Economist, Institute of Directors". LinkedIn. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- ^ "MPs' expenses: Kitty Ussher sacked from government over her claims". The Guardian. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 21 October 2015. Retrieved 17 June 2009.
- ^ "Planning a life after Westminster". BBC News. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ "Why I'm putting my family before Parliament | News". This Is London. Archived from the original on 27 June 2009. Retrieved 8 June 2010.
- ^ Ussher, Kitty (15 July 2014). "Cabinet reshuffle: Parenting in Parliament is tough for women (And I should know)". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 18 February 2018. Retrieved 2 April 2018.
- ^ Ussher, Kitty [@kittyussher] (17 August 2021). "Putting it out there - in contrast to dire earlier predictions, I say unemployment will not go up when furlough ends in September. Why? Because on the whole people are not sitting around on furlough. Here's what people say when you ask them, updated with today's ONS figures" (Tweet). Retrieved 17 January 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ "Labour market overview, UK". Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- ^ Correspondent, Jack Barnett, Economics (25 September 2023). "Quarter point rise will be right move, says Times shadow MPC". ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
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