What you need to know about new shadow pensions minister – and why she really matters

Parliament has come back to life following the summer recess and both the main party leaders have been tinkering with their top teams as they get election ready.

For prime minister Rishi Sunak, the changes were modest at this stage, with just a handful made following Ben Wallace’s decision to step down as secretary of state for defence.

Grant Shapps was the somewhat unexpected but not wholly surprising choice to take over at the Ministry of Defence – he is an experienced hand and an ally of Sunak, who is not expected to rock the boat too much in terms of demands for extra spending.

The pensions brief is one where Labour has the opportunity to significantly improve its performance

Claire Coutinho – a former special adviser to Sunak – becomes the first member of the 2019 intake of MPs to reach the Cabinet as she replaces Shapps as energy and net zero secretary.

A more far-reaching set of changes to Sunak’s team is still on the cards later in the year and it is likely we will see other new faces aligned with Sunak’s vision elevated to the Cabinet for the first time, perhaps including the current pensions minister, Laura Trott.

In the meantime, Trott will have a new opposite number on the Labour benches in Gill Furniss, as well as a new shadow secretary of state for work and pensions in Liz Kendall.

In recent years, under their respective predecessors, Matt Rodda and Jonathan Ashworth, it is fair to say Labour’s frontbench contributions to the pensions policy debate have been somewhat lacking. Pensions blogger Henry Tapper put it in slightly blunter terms recently, calling Rodda “the invisible man”.

If Labour is to become more meaningfully engaged on pensions policy, it is likely it will fall to Furniss to do the heavy lifting

If Labour is to become more meaningfully engaged on pensions policy, it is likely it will fall to Furniss to do the heavy lifting, with Kendall most likely to be focused on the more politically sensitive parts of the brief around welfare and social security.

Furniss was elected to Parliament in a by-election for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough in 2016, following the death of her husband, Harry Harpham. Furniss is a former librarian, hospital administrator, Sheffield councillor and trade union shop steward.

She has spent almost the totality of her time in Parliament on the frontbench, serving variously as shadow minister for steel, postal affairs and consumer protection, shadow minister for women and equalities, opposition whip and, most recently, shadow minister for roads.

Furniss’s trade union links are strong and she worked closely with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) during her tenure as shadow postal minister. This coincided with the CWU’s efforts with Royal Mail to introduce collective defined contribution (CDC) pensions for Royal Mail workers, but her career to date has had relatively little direct focus on pensions policy.

There should be more than enough for Furniss to get her teeth into

She has, however, asked a number of Parliamentary questions, including on the future of the pensions triple lock and on failures by employers to comply with their duties under automatic enrolment. This does at least suggest some pre-existing interest in the brief.

With the significant focus on pensions in the chancellor’s Mansion House speech this summer and a number of ongoing policy issues to be resolved – from ongoing delays to the pensions dashboard project to implementation of measures to strengthen auto-enrolment, tackle the small pots problem and efforts to increase uptake of pensions guidance and advice services – there should be more than enough for Furniss to get her teeth into.

Labour’s reshuffle contained other more headline grabbing appointments – Angela Rayner taking on the Levelling Up brief, the return of Hilary Benn, promotions for the likes of Pat McFadden and Shabana Mahmood.

But, while it may fly below the radar at times, the pensions brief is one where Labour has the opportunity to significantly improve its performance. Here’s hoping we’ll be hearing plenty more of Gill Furniss.

Simon Fitzpatrick is director, UK public affairs, at H/Advisors Cicero