Harriett Baldwin has been appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister) with responsibilities for:
- banking and financial services reform and regulation (at home and in the EU) including the PRA
- financial stability
- City competitiveness
- bank lending and access to finance
- Help to Buy
- financial conduct and the FCA
- asset management
- RBS, Lloyds and UKFI
- retail financial services, including consumer finance, financial advice and capability
- Equitable life
- foreign exchange reserves and debt management policy, National Savings and Investments and the Debt Management Office
The City will no doubt be happy with Harriett Baldwin’s appointment as City minister today. Twenty years at JP Morgan will be very reassuring, not least after concerns expressed after one City meeting when Ed Miliband apparently asked “why do companies need to pay dividends?” On the other hand, City lobbyists will know that they cannot pull the wool over the new Minister’s eyes – she knows exactly how banks make money and which arguments put by the City really have merit.
On the all-important issue of EU renegotiation, her recent roles as a government whip mean there’s not so much of a track record to go on. Certainly there’s no background as a serious Eurosceptic, and no doubt she’ll be well able to fit in with George Osborne as he leads on the renegotiation effort.
Harriett Baldwin MP biography
Harriett Baldwin has been the elected MP for West Worcestershire since 2010, retaining her seat on 7 May with 56% of the vote. She has previously served as a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee, before being appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Employment in the Department of Work and Pensions in 2012.
Prior to her recent promotion to Economic Secretary to the Treasury (City Minister), Baldwin has held the roles of Assistant Government Whip and Government Whip to the Treasury.
Outside of politics, she spent 20 years in finance, specialising in currency markets for pension funds. After joining JP Morgan in 1986, Baldwin became Managing Director and Head of Currency Management at JP Morgan’s London office in 1998. She left the bank in 2008 and has since served as Vice-Chair of Social Investment Business between 2008 and 2012.
Voting record: On business and economic issues, Baldwin has voted strongly for reducing the rate of corporation tax, and for measures that reduce tax avoidance. She has repeatedly voted against measures to introduce a bank bonus tax and against increasing the top rate of income tax. In 2014, Baldwin voted to increase the personal income tax allowance, to reduce corporation tax, and to give a greater tax incentive to companies investing in assets, as well as to support other measures in the Finance Bill.
A selection of useful links about the Minister: