Editing Steve Webb

{{About|the British politician|other people of the same name|Steve Webb (disambiguation)}}
{{short description|British pensions commentator|bot=PearBOT 5}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]]
| name = Sir Steve Webb
| image =Steve Webb 2008.jpg
| caption =
| office = [[Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions and Financial Inclusion#List_of_Ministers|Minister of State for Pensions]]
| term_start = 12 May 2010
| term_end = 8 May 2015
| primeminister = [[David Cameron]]
| predecessor = [[Angela Eagle]]
| successor = [[Ros Altmann|The Baroness Altmann]]
| office1 = [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] <br> for [[Thornbury and Yate (UK Parliament constituency)|Thornbury and Yate]] <br><small>[[Northavon (UK Parliament constituency)|Northavon]] (1997–2010)</small>
| majority1 = 
| term_start1 = 1 May 1997
| term_end1 = 30 March 2015
| predecessor1 = [[John Cope, Baron Cope of Berkeley|John Cope]]
| successor1 = [[Luke Hall (politician)|Luke Hall]]
| party = [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]]
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1965|07|18|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Birmingham]], [[Warwickshire]], England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| spouse = {{marriage|Helen, Lady Webb|1993}}
| children = 2
| residence =
| relations =
| alma_mater = [[Hertford College, Oxford]]
| profession = Academic
| occupation =
| signature =
| website = 
| footnotes =
}}
'''Sir Steven John Webb''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|PC|size=100%}} (born 18 July 1965) is a British pensions commentator who was previously [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrat]] [[Member of Parliament (United Kingdom)|Member of Parliament]] (MP) for [[Northavon (UK Parliament constituency)|Northavon]] from [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997]] to [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010]] and for [[Thornbury and Yate (UK Parliament constituency)|Thornbury and Yate]] from [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010]] to [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015]]. He was the [[Department for Work and Pensions|Minister of State for Pensions]] in the [[Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition|coalition government]] of [[David Cameron]].

==Background==
Webb was born in [[Birmingham]] to Brian and Patricia Webb, and attended the local [[comprehensive school]], [[Dartmouth High School (Sandwell)|Dartmouth High School]], before going on to study [[Philosophy, Politics and Economics]] at [[Hertford College, Oxford]]. He then worked at the [[Institute for Fiscal Studies]] in London, where he specialised in researching into poverty, taxes and benefits. In 1995, he became a professor of [[social policy]] at the [[University of Bath]].

==Political career==
At the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 general election]], Webb was elected as MP for [[Northavon (UK Parliament constituency)|Northavon]], just north of [[Bristol]], overturning a Conservative majority of over 11,000. He increased a 2,137 majority to 9,877 in the [[2001 United Kingdom general election|2001 election]] and again to 11,033 in the [[2005 United Kingdom general election|2005 election]].

In 2001, Webb was promoted by [[Charles Kennedy]] to lead spokesperson for the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] on Work and Pensions, a portfolio he had worked in since 1999. He continued in this position until being appointed as Liberal Democrat Health spokesperson in 2005. At the end of 2006, he started a new role co-ordinating the party's manifesto for the next general election. In the first reshuffle after the leadership election, he was appointed Liberal Democrat Environment, Energy, Food and Rural Affairs spokesman. Following [[Gordon Brown]]'s reshuffle in October 2008, he shadowed [[Ed Miliband]] in the newly formed [[Department for Energy and Climate Change]]. On 8 January 2009 [[Nick Clegg]] announced his "General Election Team" and an "economic recovery group" with Webb appointed as Work and Pensions spokesman.<ref>[http://www.libdems.org.uk/home/clegg-reveals-liberal-democrat-general-election-team-119073508 Clegg reveals Liberal Democrat General Election Team] Liberal Democrat official website. Retrieved on 14 January 2009.</ref>

Webb was also a member of the cross-party Christians in Parliament, and vice-president of the [[Liberal Democrat Christian Forum]].<ref>[http://www.ldcf.net Liberal Democrat Christian Forum] Official Website</ref> He was one of the first MPs to have a blog and a website, and in 2004, his website, which made use of [[Short message service|SMS]] technology, was commended in the ''[[New Statesman]]'' New Media Awards and, in February 2005, led him to win the inaugural [[Hansard Society]] E-Democracy Award. He also recognised the emerging potential of online social networks by joining [[Myspace]] and [[Facebook]], two of the biggest social media websites at the time. He was one of the contributors to the ''[[The Orange Book: Reclaiming Liberalism|Orange Book]]'' (2004) and is the author of a chapter in ''The Future of the NHS''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tempest|first1=Michelle|title=The Future of the NHS|date=2006|publisher=XPL |isbn=1-85811-369-5|url=http://www.thefutureofthenhs.com/book.html|accessdate=13 October 2015|archive-date=3 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181003172258/http://www.thefutureofthenhs.com/book.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Given his increasing profile and popularity within the party due to his role as the manifesto chair, he was seen as a probable candidate for the social liberal grouping's vote in the future leadership election. [[Simon Hughes]] had been the previous 'standard bearer' in the leadership elections in [[1999 Liberal Democrats leadership election|1999]] and [[2006 Liberal Democrats leadership election|2006]]. On 17 October 2007, the website [http://www.bloggers4steve.blogspot.com/ Bloggers4Steve] announced that Webb had received enough nominations from MPs to run. Despite this, on 18 October, Webb announced he was not running, and would be backing [[Nick Clegg]] for leader, who was ultimately the successful candidate.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7050318.stm Clegg picking up Lib Dem backers], ''[[BBC News Online]]'', 18 October 2007</ref>

At the [[2010 United Kingdom general election|2010 general election]], the constituency of Northavon was split into two new constituencies. Subsequently, Webb was elected for the new [[Thornbury and Yate (UK Parliament constituency)|Thornbury and Yate]] constituency, which covers most of the ground originally covered by Northavon.

In a letter dated 12 April 2010,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cspa.co.uk/ |title=Index-Linking of Public Sector Pensions |accessdate=17 February 2011}}</ref> Webb said on behalf of the Liberal Democrats: "We are very clear that all accrued rights should be honoured: a pension promise made should be a pension promise kept. Therefore we would not make any changes to pension rights that have already been built up. I have confirmed that I regard accrued index-linked rights as protected." However, in July 2010, as the Coalition [[Minister for Work and Pensions (United Kingdom)|Minister for Works and Pensions]], Webb announced plans to link private sector pension payments to the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) instead of the Retail Prices Index (RPI), which would reduce the value of fully accrued index-linked pensions.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.puntersouthall.com/pension-insights-and-views/Insight%20Attachments/CPI_versus_RPI_July_10.pdf|title=CPI versus RPI: impact on pensions? Punter Southall Briefing Note}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/feb/20/pension-changes-could-cost-11m-britons-thousands-of-pounds|title=Pension changes could cost 11m Britons thousands of pounds|date=20 February 2017|website=The Guardian|location=London}}</ref>

As Pensions Minister in the Coalition government, Webb led major changes to the pensions system. The pensions 'triple-lock' guarantees that the state pension rises each year by the highest of inflation, earnings or 2.5%. One year this resulted in the highest ever cash increase in the state pension, and saw pensioners who were receiving the full state pension £380 a year better off.

In Autumn 2012, auto-enrolment was introduced for large businesses in the UK, being rolled out to smaller businesses over the next four years. Auto-enrolment automatically enrols employees into a contributory pension scheme, unless they opt out. Estimates suggest that 600,000 people were auto-enrolled by the end of 2013,<ref>{{cite web
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19589265
|publisher=BBC
|accessdate=18 April 2015
|title=Q&A: Pension automatic enrolment
|date=8 August 2013
|author=Peachey, Kevin}}</ref> and that by 2014, £11M per year would be added to the total UK investment in pensions,<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://businesslife.ba.com/People/Interviews/A-quick-chat-with-Steve-Webb.html
|publisher=Business Life Magazine
|accessdate=18 April 2015
|date=20 May 2014
|title=Steve Webb, pensions Minister}}</ref>

Webb attracted media attention in March 2014, when he remarked in a television interview that due to the coalition government's pension reforms, he was relaxed if pensioners wanted to spend their savings on a [[Lamborghini]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/10711652/Budget-2014-Pensioners-should-be-free-to-buy-Lamborghini-says-minister.html|title=Budget 2014: 'Pensioners should be free to buy Lamborghini,' says minister|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|author=Peter Dominiczak|date=20 March 2014|accessdate=14 May 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/mar/20/pension-pots-used-lamborghinis-minister|title=Pension pots 'can be used to buy Lamborghinis', says minister|work=[[The Guardian]]|author=Nicholas Watt & Larry Elliott|date=20 March 2014|accessdate=14 May 2015}}</ref>

In the [[2015 United Kingdom general election|May 2015 general election]], he lost his seat to the Conservative [[Luke Hall (politician)|Luke Hall]].

==Subsequent career==
Webb was [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[2017 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=61803|supp=y|page=N2|date=31 December 2016}}</ref>

In August 2015, it was announced Webb was becoming director of policy and external communications at the financial services mutual [[Royal London Group|Royal London]]. Parliamentary rules prevented Webb from direct political lobbying for the first two years.<ref name=telegraph-20150812>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/insurance/11798298/Former-pensions-minister-Webb-joins-Royal-London.html |title=Former pensions minister Webb joins Royal London |author=Marion Dakers |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|location=London |date=12 August 2015 |accessdate=12 August 2015}}</ref> In 2020, Webb left Royal London to take up a partner role at the consultancy Lane Clark and Peacock.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ftadviser.com/pensions/2020/01/14/steve-webb-leaves-royal-london/|title=Steve Webb leaves Royal London – FTAdviser.com}}</ref>

A [[Freedom of information in the United Kingdom|freedom of information]] inquiry tabled by Webb in 2020 revealed that a large number of women were being paid state pensions below the expected rate. Some 200,000 women could now be in line for payouts averaging £13,500 to top-up the underpayment of their state pension.<ref>{{cite news |title=Women retirees win £2.7bn for underpaid pensions |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-56275415 |access-date=9 March 2021 |publisher=BBC News |date=9 March 2021}}</ref>

==Personal life==
On 10 July 1993, Webb married Helen, a curate at his local church in [[Clapham]], south London. A year later, the couple moved to Bristol; they have two children.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.webbsteve.blogspot.com The Webb Log] Steve Webb's blog
*{{UK MP links | parliament = steve-webb/220 | hansard = professor-steve-webb | hansardcurr = 4546 | guardian = 5437/steve-webb | publicwhip = Steve_Webb | theywork = steve_webb | record = Steve-Webb/Northavon/1128 | bbc = 25230.stm | journalisted = steve-webb }}
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7048460.stm Profile: Steve Webb] [[BBC News]], 17 October 2007

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{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Webb, Steve}}
[[Category:1965 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Liberal Democrats (UK) MPs for English constituencies]]
[[Category:Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:People from Birmingham, West Midlands]]
[[Category:Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford]]
[[Category:English Anglicans]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Bath]]
[[Category:UK MPs 1997–2001]]
[[Category:UK MPs 2001–2005]]
[[Category:UK MPs 2005–2010]]
[[Category:UK MPs 2010–2015]]
[[Category:Politics of South Gloucestershire District]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]