Stephen Timms, who served as pensions minister under Tony Blair and who has spent the past four years as chairman of the work and pensions select committee, is returning to the Department for Work & Pensions as a minister.
He was appointed today by new prime minister Keir Starmer, who had already appointed Liz Kendall as secretary of state for work and pensions.
Kendall, who has been MP for Leicester West since 2010, had served as shadow secretary of state for work and pensions since 2023.
Timms, who is MP for East Ham, was pensions minster between 2005 and 2006. He was also minister for employment and welfare reform under Gordon Brown in 2008.
After serving in Ed Miliband's shadow frontbench team between 2010 and 2015, Timms returned to the backbenches before being elected to succeed Frank Field as chairman of the work and pensions select committee in 2020.
Alongside Timms, Starmer has also appointed Alison McGovern, the MP for Birkenhead, as a minister in the DWP. She was previously shadow minister for employment.
Addressing Timms's appointment Mike Ambery, retirement savings director at Standard Life, part of Phoenix Group, said: “Pensions, retirement and savings is a complex brief so it’s great to have a minister in post who has been following the issues so closely through the work and pensions committee.
"Having the context around challenges like the lack of savings adequacy, the need to implement auto-enrolment reforms, the pension dashboard and small pots to name just a few of the issues, will be incredibly important to ensuring the government is able to move matters forward at pace.”
