Kitty Ussher

Biography

Ussher is the daughter of an Anglo-Irish lawyer father, and a headmistress mother whose brother is Peter Bottomley. Consequently, she is the niece of the former Conservative cabinet minister Virginia Bottomley, and the 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.

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. 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 Labour candidate for the constituency. From 2005 to 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, as the first signs of the credit crunch appeared, meant that she was 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 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". 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.

In April 2009, Ussher made London her permanent home so she could her children to school in Westminster. She moved to Brixton, South London.

Ussher was moved back to the Treasury in the June 2009 reshuffle, this time becoming 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

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. She also announced she would step down in the forthcoming election, citing family reasons, rather than the fresh expenses revelations.

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 HM Revenue and Customs, 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, Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement stating that the occurrence 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.

Later career

In May 2010, after leaving Parliament, Ussher became the new Director 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, 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.

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