Kitty Ussher, English economist and politician
Katharine Anne Ussher (born 18 March 1971) is a British economist, former Labour Party MP and Treasury minister, and former Chief Executive of the Demos think tank, who is now chief economist at the Institute of Directors.After training as an economist and working as a macroeconomic forecaster at the Economist Intelligence Unit, she was elected Member of Parliament (MP) for Burnley at the 2005 general election, succeeding Peter Pike. Seen as a high flier, she went on to serve as a minister in Gordon Brown's government from 2007 to 2009, mainly at the Treasury, but also at the Department for Work and Pensions, having previously been a Special Advisor at the Department for Trade and Industry. At the time she was the second-youngest government minister, and the youngest woman.
Ussher resigned from her ministerial role in 2009 following her involvement in the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal in which it was reported she had taken action on the advice of her accountants to reduce her capital gains tax liability. She did not stand at the 2010 election, citing the desire for a more normal family life while her children were young. Since then, she has worked primarily in public policy thought leadership, at Demos and as Managing Director of Tooley Street Research. In August 2021, she predicted that unemployment would not rise when the coronavirus furlough scheme ended at the end of the following month. At the time this was out of step with most economic forecasts however, when the official ONS data was released four months later, her prediction was shown to be correct.