Torsten Bell
The Reformer
Changing the system from inside it, principle turned into change.
Torsten Bell is The Reformer in almost textbook form, an evidence-driven diagnostician who translates structural failure, stagnant wages, chronic underinvestment, generational inequality, into an incremental and institutionally grounded programme. His stated view that changing your country involves hundreds of decisions is a deliberate rejection of silver-bullet radicalism in favour of persistent, values-anchored iteration. His authority rests on lived proximity to governance itself, across the Treasury, the Resolution Foundation, and now Parliament as MP for Swansea West.
“Changing your country involves hundreds of decisions. It involves knowing where you're aiming for, which should be radical — inequality down, growth up — but getting that right isn't about one big decision. That's not how the world works.”
“For a full time worker on the minimum wage, they're earning £9000 a year more than they would have done if we just left the minimum wage at its 1999 level. In real terms it's huge. That policy has made a massive difference.”
“The really scary thing is that failure feeds into people thinking things can't get better, so I might as well roll the dice, vote for some really extreme people. That is the danger.”
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy: “Economist Torsten Bell MP explains how to fix Britain”
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