Here’s a couple of extracts from two newspapers at opposite ends of the political spectrum – the Telegraph and the Guardian – commentating on the Budget.
“The Lib Dem pensions minister, Steve Webb, has now become one of the most important people in government. A rare example of a minister who is an expert in his area, he has been pushing the pension pot liberalisation plan (which is firmly rooted in longstanding Lib Dem party policy) and the legislation on this – which he will almost certainly have to take through the Commons – may be the most important of the next session of parliament.”
“One of the outstanding ministerial successes of the Coalition government has been Steve Webb, the pensions minister. Hard-working, competent and trusted by all sides, he bears a great deal of the responsibility for this Budget’s saving revolution”.
Would you care to hazard a guess as to which quote comes from which newspaper? It’s hard to tell isn’t it – a rare occurrence, I imagine, when two publications with such different political and economic convictions are commenting on a Budget. But a huge compliment to Steve Webb, who is rightly lauded on both sides of the house as an expert in the field, especially as the architect for the earlier pension reforms in this parliament.
Two weeks ago there was a flurry of speculation about who would get the Lib Dem economic brief for the general election campaign. Will it be Danny, five years as Chief Secretary to the Treasury, or Mystic Vince, the man with the Midas touch on the economy and the canny turn of phrase (“Stalin to Mr. Bean”)?
Now, suddenly, there’s a new name in the frame for that plummiest of jobs in an election campaign. And I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t just happenstance that Nick Clegg asked Webb to propose the “difficult” debate on the economy at last year’s autumn conference – the one where, for a while, it looked like Vince wouldn’t turn up at all. At the time it seemed a slightly leftfield choice – now it suddenly looks like there actually be a bit of a plan.
Steve Webb has been one of the best kept secrets within the Lib Dems for quite a while now, consistently rated by activists as one of our star performers in government, yet largely unknown by the public at large. I suspect that’s all about to change.
Richard Morris blogs at A View From Ham Common, which was named Best New Blog at the 2011 Lib Dem Conference
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