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Torsten Bell

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Torsten Bell
MP FAcSS
Official portrait, 2024
Member of Parliament
for Swansea West
Incumbent
Assumed office
4 July 2024
Preceded byGeraint Davies
Majority8,515 (17.1%)
Personal details
BornSeptember 1982 (age 42)
Greenwich,[1] England, United Kingdom
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Political partyLabour
Children2[2]
Alma materMansfield College, Oxford
Known forChief Executive of the Resolution Foundation (2015–2024)

Torsten Henricson-Bell FAcSS (born September 1982) is a Labour politician, economist, author, and newspaper columnist, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea West since 2024.[3]

Previously he was the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, an economic thinktank, from 2015 to 2024.

He was appointed to the Resolution Foundation in 2015 after having served as Ed Miliband's Director of policy, and as a Treasury civil servant who became special adviser to Alistair Darling during the 2007–2008 financial crisis.[4]

Early life and education

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Bell's Swedish mother, Clem Henricson, is a policy analyst and activist, and his English father, Bill Bell, is an academic and children's rights advocate. His twin brother, Olaf, is a Cambridge-educated civil servant.[5]

Bell read philosophy, politics and economics at Mansfield College, Oxford.[6] At Oxford, he was editor of the student newspaper Cherwell.[7]

Early career

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Since 2017, he has written a column in The Observer named Hidden Gems from the World of Research.[8]

Bell writes regularly about poverty and inequality in the United Kingdom,[9] about the North–South divide in England and the levelling-up policy of the British government.[10] He described the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget as "the biggest unforced economic policy error of my lifetime."[11]

Bell has been associated with the coordination of policy developments for the Labour Party.[12] He has received recognition across various factions within the party for his attention to detail.[13]

In November 2022, Bell was appointed Honorary Professor at the UCL Policy Lab.[14]

In September 2023, Bell was named as the tenth most powerful left-wing figure in the UK by the New Statesman.[15]

Parliamentary career

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In May 2024, Bell was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the seat of Swansea West in the 2024 general election, which raised some criticism from local members for his having "no connection" to the area and "no Welsh connection".[16] Despite this, in July 2024, Bell was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Swansea West constituency, with 41.4% share of the vote, and a majority of 8,515.[3]

Since July 2024, Bell has been Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office.[17]

Bibliography

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  • Bell, Torsten (13 June 2024). Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back. Vintage. ISBN 9781529932409.

References

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  1. ^ Eaton, George (4 January 2023). ""This country doesn't invest in its own future": Torsten Bell on why the UK is being hit hardest". The New Statesman. Archived from the original on 8 June 2023. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  2. ^ Bell, Torsten (13 June 2024). Great Britain? How We Get Our Future Back (1st ed.). Vintage. ISBN 9781529932409.
  3. ^ a b "Swansea West – General election results 2024". BBC News. Retrieved 2024-07-05.
  4. ^ "Ed Miliband's former head of policy appointed director of living standards think tank". Independent. 4 September 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  5. ^ Johnston, John (2021-10-27). "Saved By The Bells: The Influential Twin Brothers Who Have Held Some Of The Biggest Jobs In Westminster". Politics Home. Retrieved 2024-02-07.
  6. ^ The Mansfield Magazine. (2023). Mansfield College, Oxford University, p. 57. Retrieved from https://issuu.com/mansfieldoxford/docs/mansfield_magazine_final_issuu_
  7. ^ "Media Guardian: Student Media Awards". The Guardian. 2003-09-08. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
  8. ^ "Torsten Bell | The Guardian". www.theguardian.com.
  9. ^ Elliott, Larry; Allen, Katie (31 January 2017). "UK faces return to inequality of Thatcher years, says report". The Guardian. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
  10. ^ "Britain's Unbridgeable Divide". The Atlantic. 20 June 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  11. ^ "Policy errors set Chancellor on course to announce 'Osborne-level' spending cuts to balance the books". Resolution Foundation. 29 September 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  12. ^ "The real clever cogs in Labour's machine". Financial Times. 15 June 2014. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  13. ^ "The making of Ed Miliband". The Guardian. 15 April 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
  14. ^ "Torsten Bell appointed Honorary Professor at the UCL Policy Lab". UCL. 9 November 2022. Retrieved 10 November 2022.
  15. ^ Statesman, New (2023-05-17). "The New Statesman's left power list". New Statesman. Retrieved 2023-12-13.
  16. ^ "Gwadu bod ymgeiswyr Llafur yn cael eu 'gorfodi' ar Gymru". BBC Cymru Fyw (in Welsh). 2024-06-02. Retrieved 2024-06-03.
  17. ^ url=https://labour.org.uk/about-us/the-cabinet/%7Caccess-date=2024-08-02
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