The pensions industry has paid tribute to the former Labour minister and cross bench peer Frank Field, whose death was announced today.
Lord Field was a minister in the Department of Work and Pensions in the first term of Tony Blair’s new Labour government, and for much of his parliamentary career was concerned with welfare reform.
He chaired the influential Work and Pensions Select Committee from 2017 to 2019, and entered the House of Lords in 2020 as Lord Field of Birkenhead, the constituency he represented for 40 years.
Tributes in the industry were led by Steve Webb, a former pensions minister, and now a parter at LCP. He said: “The world of Parliament, pensions and public life is lessened today by the loss of Frank Field.
“I first met him more than 30 years ago when I was a young economist and his support and engagement first got me involved in the world of Westminster.
“Although Frank was passionate about the causes he believed in, he was not a ‘tribal’ politician and was willing to work with people of all parties in support of causes that he believed in. Frank set the gold standard for how to run an all-party Select Committee. As Chair of the Work and Pensions Committee he used his position to hold the powerful to account and was particularly effective in support of members of the BHS pension scheme.”
He added: “Frank had that rare combination of compassion, anger about injustice and deep policy expertise which made him such an effective campaigner. His campaigning spanned early work with the Child Poverty Action Group to working for pensions justice on a range of issues in Parliament. He will be much missed”.
Baroness Ros Altmann, a veteran pensions campaign, and also a former pensions minister said she was “truly devastated” to hear that Field had died. She described him as a a “real hero of modern times” saying he was “decent, principled and brave.”
She adds: “This is a tragic loss of a great man who it was a privilege to count as a personal friend of long-standing. Having visited him during his long illness, and having had the honour of working with him on various issues relating to social policy, pensions, taxation and welfare, it is hard to believe he is not still here.
“He did so much for social welfare policy, particularly with child poverty, free school meals and minimum wage.”
The Pensions Management Institute president Robert Wakefield added that the industry was saddened to learn of the death of Lord Field.
“Frank Field was for many years one of the most authoritative voices on the UK’s pension system, and whether one agreed with his views or not, he was always held in the highest respect by all who worked with him.
“He was an outstanding chair of the Work and Pensions Committee, and his impact of the pensions system will be felt for years to come. He will be greatly missed.”
Field quit the Labour Party in 2018 while the party was led by Jeremy Corbyn. He was elected as a cross bench peer by the Conservative government after campaigning in favour of Brexit.
He was famously charged by the Blair government to ‘think the unthinkable’ when asked to look at welfare reform in the late 1990s. But this wide-ranging brief did not necessary win support, with Blair later describing his proposals as not so much unthinkable as “unfathomable”.
Senior politicians also paid tribute to him. Sir Tony Blair said in a statement: “[Field] had integrity, intelligence and deep commitment to the causes he believed in. He was an independent thinker never constrained by conventional wisdom, but always pushing at the frontier of new ideas. Even when we disagreed, I had the utmost respect for him as a colleague and a character.”
The Prime Minster Rishi Sunk added: “”Frank Field was a decent, moral, and thoughtful man. He was a great parliamentarian – he made our politics better and raised the level of national debate in this country.”