TORSTEN Bell has admitted he could not live on £70 per week after confronted with the reality of Labour's recent plans to cut benefits.
On Newsnight, host Victoria Derbyshire told Bell that the recent swingeing cuts to disability benefits would leave some young people living on just £70 per week.
Bill attempted to defend the UK Government, only to say he could not live on that amount of money.
Derbyshire said: “To buy food, to pay bills, 70 quid a week. You've just told me you couldn't live on that.”
Bell responded: “Well, no, I have a mortgage to pay … but what I'm saying to you, and the benefit system exists to provide housing benefit support for young people as well."
So who is Bell? And how did he become a UK Government minister?
Career history
After reading philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford, he worked as a special adviser in the Treasury under Alistair Darling during the financial crisis.
He also worked as a senior aide to Ed Miliband (below), before joining the Resolution Foundation, a think tank which campaigns for low and middle-income earners, in 2015.
During his time as director of the Resolution Foundation, Bell’s research focused on boosting economic growth and reducing inequality.
Before his selection as a Labour candidate, Bell argued that the two-child benefit cap meant that larger families were struggling to afford food.
He also in 2021 argued that the Tories cutting Universal Credit amounted to a cut of 10% off their income for some of the UK's poorest households.
He wrote a controversial paper for the think tank in 2020 in which he argued for the pension triple lock to be scrapped, with increases linked to wage growth.
Elected for the first time at the 2024 General Election, Bell was given a Government job following a minor shake-up caused by the resignation of former City minister Tulip Siddiq, after she was linked to two high-level corruption probes in Bangladesh.
Bell’s selection as the Labour candidate for Swansea West attracted criticism at the time because he has no connection to the Welsh city.
Time in Government
After his appointment as pensions minister, Bell rowed back this position.
As a DWP minister, he was called upon in March to defend Labour’s cuts to social security.
“Could you live on £70 a week?” “Absolutely not” “So why do you expect young people to?” “We won't”@vicderbyshire challenges DWP minister Torsten Bell on benefit reform.#Newsnight pic.twitter.com/mEbBnT92Aq
— BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) March 18, 2025
In an interview on BBC Newsnight, the minister was asked whether he would be able to live on £70 per week, as host Victoria Derbyshire said some young people would need to in light of Labour’s cuts.
He replied: “Well, no because I have a mortgage to pay.”
Other activities
Before joining the Government, Bell was a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, a school governor and a trustee of the Child Poverty Action Group.
He also wrote a weekly column for The Observer.
