Tulip Siddiq’s resignation yesterday led to Torsten Bell joining the government as pensions minister. A former chief executive of the Resolution Foundation thinktank, Bell is regarded as one of the most able MPs from the 2024 intake, and is already being tipped as a future chancellor.

The penisons industry has broadly welcomed his arrival. Here are some of their comments.

From Zoe Alexander, director of policy and advocacy at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association

Torsten Bell is already well known and respected within the pensions industry. We are optimistic that he will bring the leadership that is needed to make progress on both phases of the Pensions Review and look forward to working with him to continue to deliver a system that is adequate, affordable and fair, in the interests of UK savers.

From Sophia Singleton, president of the Society of Pension Professionals

Torsten’s appointment comes at a particularly important time for pensions policy with various consultations in train, dashboards, value for money and other projects mid-progress and a much-needed pensions adequacy review having appeared to have stalled under the previous minister.

We therefore look forward to working with the new minister to drive forward these important initiatives and implement the most effective, evidence-based pensions policy possible.

From Lisa Picardo, chief business officer UK for PensionBee, an online pensions provider

We welcome the new pensions meinister to his new role. With his extensive experience in public policy, we’re keen to see his innovative approaches that prioritise savers and bring much-needed progress to the pensions industry.

We are looking forward to seeing whether Torsten Bell – with a background of campaigning for high retirement living standards – can revive the necessary discussions about increasing automatic enrolment pension contributions.

From Jon Greer, head of retirement policy at Quilter, a wealth management company

Bell’s background as an economist and his tenure as chief executive of the Resolution Foundation provides him with a solid background for the pensions brief and will enable him to grasp the complexities of a sector that is so critical to the financial well-being of millions.

While Bell has previously advocated for radical pension tax reforms – such as moving to flat-rate pension tax relief and capping the tax-free lump sum at £40,000 – these ideas often fail to account for the practical realities facing savers who have relied on the stability of the existing system.

That said, his dual appointment … across Treasury and DWP [Bell is a minister in both departments] reflects the broader implications pensions have for the economy and the public finances. Labour’s commitment to the state pension triple lock, despite fiscal constraints, will test his ability to deliver on manifesto promises while ensuring long-term sustainability.

Good morning. Keir Starmer faces PMQs today. As he prepares, two issues seem very likely to come up.

First, the economy. There is some modest good news this morning, and Rachel Reeves easily fought off a Tory attempted hit job on her in the Commons yesterday, but the underlying fundamentals are still pretty grim. Here are the key developments this morning.

• Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said the government would have to take “tough decisions” to meet its fiscal rules. The rise in government borrowing costs means further spending cuts are likely if the government is to meet its fiscal rules and Jones acknowledged that as he gave interviews this morning. He told BBC Breakfast:

People at home know you can’t just keep borrowing every month to pay the bills.

And where we do borrow to invest in the country’s infrastructure, the debt has to be falling as a size of the economy over the next five years.

Those fiscal rules are non-negotiable. That means there are tough decisions for the chancellor and this government to take.

• Jones said the government will not water down its plans to extend workers’ rights in the employment rights bill. In an interview on the Today programme Jones was asked about an interview on Monday where Rupert Soames, the CBI president, said the proposed changes could lead to firms laying off workers. Asked if the government would rethink the plans, Jones said: “No is the short answer.” He said giving workers more protection would be good for the economy.

And the second issue likely to dominate is the fallout from the resignation of Tulip Siddiq. As Pippa Crerar explains, even though Siddiq has now resigned, people are asking whether, given her family relationship with a Bangladeshi leader accused of corruption (and worse), it was wise for Starmer to make her anti-corruption minister.

The bad news for Starmer is that this means people are now “questioning his judgment”. (The good news for Starmer is judgment questioning is primarily a journalistic and political preoccuption, used to keep a scandal going after a resignation has largely killed it off as a story. In the real world, normal people very rarely go round complaining that something “raised questions about the PM’s judgment”.)

Here are the key developments on this.

I don’t think there’s a question about the prime minister’s judgment. The independent process has been followed. It concluded, and Tulip took the decision to step down from government.

Jones also said the fact that there was an inquiry by the PM’s ethics adviser, leading to Siddiq’s resignation, showed “the process is working”.

• Siddiq has been urged to “seek forgiveness from the people of Bangladesh”. As Sky News reports, responding to Siddiq’s resignation, a spokesperson for a Prof Muhammad Yunus, the interim leader of Bangladesh, said the former minister “may not have entirely understood the source of the money and property that she was enjoying in London”. The spokesperson added:

She knows now and should seek forgiveness from the people of Bangladesh …

We remain committed to accountability and justice and will be working with partners around the world to return the stolen funds to the people of Bangladesh.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Lord Hermer, the attorney general, gives evidence to the Commons justice committee.

10am: Bridget Phillipson, the education secretary, gives evidence to the Commons education committee.

Morning: John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister, gives a speech on child poverty.

Noon: Keir Starmer faces Kemi Badenoch at PMQs.

After 12.30pm: James MacCleary, a Lib Dem MP, introduces a 10-minute rule bill that would require the government to negotiate a youth mobility scheme with the EU.

3pm: Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, gives evidence to the Commons energy committee.

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