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Torsten Henricson Bell (born September 1982) is a Labour politician, economist, author, and newspaper columnist, serving as Member of Parliament (MP) for Swansea West since 2024. He was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions in January 2025.
Previously he was the chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, an economic Think tank, 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 2008 financial crisis.
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Bell was educated at The Judd School in Tonbridge going on to graduate in philosophy, politics and economics at Mansfield College, Oxford. At Oxford, Bell was editor of the student newspaper Cherwell.
Bell writes regularly about poverty and inequality in the United Kingdom, about the North–South divide in England and the levelling-up policy of the British government. He described the September 2022 United Kingdom mini-budget as "the biggest unforced economic policy error of my lifetime."
Bell has been associated with the coordination of policy developments for the Labour Party. He has received recognition across various factions within the party for his attention to detail.
In November 2022, Bell was appointed Honorary Professor at the UCL Policy Lab.
In September 2023, Bell was named as the tenth most powerful left-wing figure in the UK by the New Statesman.
From July 2024 to January 2025, Bell was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Cabinet Office. Thereafter he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Pensions, replacing Emma Reynolds, who was promoted following the resignation of Tulip Siddiq.
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