| Torsten Bell | |
| Honorific Suffix: | MP FAcSS |
| Birth Place: | Greenwich,[1] England, United Kingdom |
| Citizenship: | United Kingdom |
| Alma Mater: | Mansfield College, Oxford |
| Known For: | Chief Executive of the Resolution Foundation (2015–2024) |
| Party: | Labour |
| Children: | 2[2] |
| Office1: | Member of Parliament for Swansea West |
| Termstart1: | 4 July 2024 |
| Predecessor1: | Geraint Davies |
| Majority1: | 8,515 (17.1%) |
Torsten Henricson-Bell FAcSS (born September 1982) is a Labour politician, economist, author, and newspaper columnist, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea West since 2024.[3] Previously he was the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, an economic thinktank, from 2015 to 2024. He was appointed to the Resolution Foundation in 2015 after having served as Ed Miliband's Director of policy, and as a Treasury civil servant who became special adviser to Alistair Darling during the 2007-2008 financial crisis.[4]
Bell's parents are Clem Henricson, a policy analyst and activist, and Bill Bell, an academic and children's rights advocate. His twin brother, Olaf, is a Cambridge-educated civil servant.[5]
Bell read philosophy, politics and economics at the Mansfield College, Oxford.[6] At Oxford, he was editor of the student newspaper Cherwell.[7]
Since 2017, he has written a column in The Observer newspaper named Hidden Gems from the World of Research.[8]
Bell writes regularly about poverty and inequality in the United Kingdom,[9] about the North–South divide in England and the levelling-up policy of the British government.[10] He described the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget as "the biggest unforced economic policy error of my lifetime."[11]
Bell has been associated with the coordination of policy developments for the Labour Party.[12] He has received recognition across various factions within the party for his attention to detail.[13]
In November 2022, Bell was appointed Honorary Professor at the UCL Policy Lab.[14]
In September 2023, Bell was named as the tenth most powerful left-wing figure in the UK by the New Statesman.[15]
In May 2024, Bell was selected as the Labour Party candidate for the seat of Swansea West in the 2024 general election, which raised some criticism from local members for having "no connection" to the area.[16] Despite this, in July 2024, Bell was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Swansea West constituency, with 41.4% share of the vote, and a majority of 8,515.
Since July 2024, Bell has been a Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Cabinet Office.[17]
On 23 July 2024, Bell voted against an SNP amendment to scrap the two-child limit for families in receipt of means-tested benefits, a policy that he had spoken out against in the years preceding his election to Parliament.[18] [19]