Kitty Ussher

In February 2015, she joined the Financial Services Consumer Panel, a scrutiny panel for the Financial Conduct Authority regulator. Between 2017-19 she spent two years working as an inner city maths teacher, as part of the inaugural cohort of Now Teach, a scheme to encourage older professionals to switch careers into teaching, stating in her blog that she “thought she should do something useful” .

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, the Social Market Foundation and Policy Network and for the FT.

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

Ussher resigned from her ministerial role in 2009. She did not stand at the 2010 election, citing the desire for a more normal family life while her children were young. Since, she has worked primarily in public policy thought leadership, at Demos and as Managing Director of Tooley Street Research .

In the June 2009 reshuffle she was moved back to the Treasury, this time promoted to 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.

Ussher resigned as a minister in June 2009, noting that technically she had done nothing wrong but citing a desire to "prevent embarrassment to the government" after allegations that she also changed the designation of her home for tax purposes. Ussher lived in both London and Burnley and had designated her Burnley house as the main residence prior to its sale .

Her period 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".

From 2005 to 2006, Ussher was a member of the Public Accounts Committee. She was Parliamentary Private Secretary to Margaret Hodge, the Minister of State at the Department of Trade and Industry, until 29 June 2007.

After training as an economist and working as a macroeconomic forecaster at the Economist Intelligence Unit , she was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Burnley at the 2005 general election, succeeding Peter Pike. Seen as a high flier, she went on to serve as a minister in Gordon Brown's government from 2007 to 2009, mainly at the Treasury, but also at the Department for Work and Pensions, having previously been a Special Advisor at the Department for Trade and Industry. At the time she was the second-youngest government minister, and the youngest woman.

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 constituency's Labour candidate. The new intake of MPs was called the brightest for a generation .

Commenting on her resignation, the BBC described her as a "rising star" who had risen quickly through the ranks, despite only being elected in 2005.. The Independent newspaper commented that her departure from the Government and the Labour benches was a blow to Gordon Brown. “At 38, she was one of his youngest ministers and had been marked out for a bright future having already taken on jobs at the Treasury and the Department of Work and Pensions.” .

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).

From 1998 to 2002 she also served as a councillor for Vassall ward in the London Borough of Lambeth, where she chaired the Council's 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.

Katharine Anne Ussher (born 18 March 1971) is a British economist, former MP and Treasury minister who is the former Chief Executive and now the Chief Economist at Demos think tank.