Kitty Ussher

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Kitty Ussher MP
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
Incumbent
Assumed office  5 May 2005
Preceded by	Peter Pike
Majority	5,778 (14.8%)
Born	18 March 1971 (1971-03-18) (age 38) Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire
Nationality	British
Political party	Labour
Spouse	Peter Colley
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford, Birkbeck, University of London

Katharine Anne "Kitty" Ussher (born 18 March 1971, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a Labour Party politician in the United Kingdom. She has been the member of Parliament for Burnley since the 2005 general election, succeeding Peter Pike of the same party. Ussher formerly held the position of Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury in Gordon Brown's Government until her resignation.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career 3 Parliamentary career 3.1 Expenses controversy 4 Personal life 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

Ussher is the daughter of an Irish Doctor father, and headmistress mother whose brother is Peter Bottomley..^[1] Consequently, this makes her the niece of the former Conservative cabinet minister, Virginia Bottomley

She was educated on a free place at the independent St Paul's Girls' School, and Balliol College, Oxford, where she read PPE, and Birkbeck College, London, where she took a MSc in Economics. Since graduation, she has lived in South London.^[1]

[edit] Career

Prior to her election she worked as chief economist for Britain in Europe and as an economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit and the Centre for European Reform. In addition she has worked as secretary to Paul Boateng and as researcher to MPs Martin O’Neill, Kim Howells and Adam Ingram. In 2001 she was appointed as special adviser to Patricia Hewitt in the Department of Trade and Industry. She 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.

[edit] Parliamentary career

Ussher was elected as the member of Parliament for Burnley at the 2005 General Election, having been selected as the Labour candidate for the constituency through an All-Women Shortlist.^[2]

From 2005 - 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. One of her first speeches was to London First's "Building the Capital's Capital". She described this position as "her dream job" and told her audience, "we want our decisions to be informed by your expertise. And more than that, we need them to be.”.^[3]

The timing of her appointment gave her a ringside seat at the credit crunch, party to crucial meetings of the Tripartate Commmittee 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 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 2009 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 The Times' city diarist Martin Waller as "one of the brighter denizens of the lower depths of the Brown administration" who had "made herself popular enough in the City".^[4]

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 December 2008 she was the minister responsible for explaining the Government's position on charging interest on Social Fund loans.^[5] She said that the Government was “absolutely not” proposing charging interest on loans from the Social Fund, although a consultation paper was clearly proposing such an idea and included a worked example of interest charges. The idea was comprehensively rejected in the Government's formal response.^[6]

In 2007-08 she claimed £22,767, in Additional Costs Allowance, the 242nd highest claim among MPs, which according to her website is used to maintain a terrace house in Brixton uses when her Parliamentary duties require her to be in London. She also spent £9,620 of the Communications Allowance, putting her joint 217th among MPs.^[7][8]

In April 2009 Ussher announced that she had made her constituency house her second home for parliamentary purposes and London address her main home. This was because her children would be going to school in London in order to keep the family together during the week. She will maintain a home off Manchester Road in Burnley.

Ussher was moved back to HM Treasury in the June 2009 reshuffle, this time becoming Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury.

[edit] Expenses controversy

On the 17th June 2009, after controversial details of MP's expenses had been released in the press, ^[9] Ussher resigned, citing a desire to "prevent embarrassment to the government" .^[10] Ussher is said to have flipped the designation of her second home from Burnley to South London, in order to avoid Capital Gains Tax estimated at between £9,750 and £16,800 on her Burnley property. Ussher also announced that she would not contest the next election.^[11]

On the 5th of June 2009 the police at Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service issued a statement regarding MPs' expenses, which stated that they had not found evidence of criminal activity and that it was 'highly unlikely' that MPs would face charges. The police said that the incidents of flipping second homes to avoid paying capital gains tax was not a matter for police investigation.^[12]

[edit] Personal life

She married accountant Peter Colley in September 1999 in Hammersmith;^[1] they have one daughter (born 7 June 2005)^[13]) and a son (born 3 January 2008^[14].

Ussher is niece of Peter Bottomley, MP, and (many generations back) of Archbishop James Ussher. Burnley elected her cousin Gerald Archibald Arbuthnot as MP in 1910.^{[citation needed]}

Kitty states that her hobbies are walking the moors of Burnley and supporting Burnley Football Club where she is a season ticket holder.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Kitty Ussher MP
• HM Treasury page
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Kitty Ussher MP
• Family tree
• BBC Politics page

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Peter Pike	Member of Parliament for Burnley 2005 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Ed Balls	Economic Secretary to the Treasury 2007-2008	Succeeded by Ian Pearson
Preceded by James Plaskitt	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Pensions Reform 2008-2009	Succeeded by Helen Goodman
Preceded by Angela Eagle	Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury 2009	Succeeded by Sarah McCarthy-Fry