David Freud, Baron Freud

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Given the active labour market policies now pursued in the UK, there is a close link between effective expenditure on employment programmes and expenditure on working age benefits. Effective spending by the [DWP] on labour market policies or administration can result in real reductions in benefit expenditure (and vice versa) [6]

In 2008, during the banking crisis that had begun the previous year, Freud became an adviser to Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell and was asked to "help implement nothing less than a revolution in the welfare state" after a "sea change in Labour's thinking about the benefits system". [7] Some of his ideas were incorporated into a white paper published later that year. [8] However, he came to the belief the Conservative Party was "more likely to implement his radical reforms" and announced he would switch to working with the Conservatives. [9] [10] Purnell later resigned after Gordon Brown refused to cut welfare spending. [11] On 27 June 2009, Freud was made a life peer after his name was put forward by the Conservative leadership. He then became a shadow minister in David Cameron's frontbench team. [12]

When the Cameron–Clegg coalition was formed in 2010, Freud was made Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Welfare Reform at the Department for Work and Pensions. In 2012, he outlined some of his thoughts on welfare reform in an interview by saying: "People who are poorer should be prepared to take the biggest risks, they've got least to lose. We have, through our welfare system, created a system which has made them reluctant to take risks, so we need to turn that on its head and make the system predictable so that people will take those risks". In the same interview, he said his primary concerns were the "nooks and crannies" in the benefits system where people could sit for long periods without ongoing scrutiny. He claimed the people who did this were: "The incapacity benefits, the lone parents, the people who are self-employed for year after year but only earn hundreds of pounds or a few thousand pounds, the people waiting for their work capability assessment then not going to it - all kinds of areas where people are able to have a lifestyle off benefits and actually off conditionality". [13]

In 2012, he argued that many people were on benefits as a "lifestyle choice" rather than using it as a safety net. In 2013, he stated in a House of Lords speech, to much criticism, that the number of food banks were increasing because people want free food rather than growing poverty. [4]

In 2014, Labour MPs called for Freud's resignation after he was secretly recorded responding to a question posed at a fringe meeting of the Conservative Party conference. The question was whether some people with disabilities should work for a token sum in order to enjoy the non-financial advantages of engaging in the world of work, perhaps with their wages topped up by benefit payments. Freud agreed that there was a small group of disabled people who were "not worth the full wage" and said he would go away and think about it. Freud had to apologise. He said: "I was foolish to accept the premise of the question...I care passionately about disabled people...that is why through Universal Credit...we have increased overall spending on disabled households by £250 million, offered the most generous work allowance ever, and increased the disability addition to £360 per month". [14]

After the Conservatives won the general election in May 2015, Freud was promoted to Minister of State at the DWP, where he was given an enhanced role in overseeing the expansion of the Universal Credit scheme. [15] He stepped down from his government role at the end of December 2016. [16]

In February 2021, the House of Lords Commissioner for Standards ruled that Freud had breached the code of conduct for peers by writing to judges to argue against the release of character references given in ex-Conservative MP Charlie Elphicke's trial for sexually assaulting two women, finding Lord Freud breached the House of Lords' code of conduct "by failing to act on his personal honour". Freud made a formal apology in the House of Lords. [17] [18]

Freud was regarded as the architect of the Universal Credit, which was legislated for in 2012. [4] [19] In 2021, he launched his book titled Clashing Agendas about the battles with the Treasury over the introduction of Universal Credit. [19]

Personal life

Along with the late Martin Gilbert, Freud has acted as a long-term trustee of the Portland Trust, a not-for-profit London-based foundation set up to promote co-operation between Israel and Palestine through economic development. [20] Between 2005 and 2008, he was its chief executive.

Freud is a president of Volunteering Matters, UK's volunteering charity founded in 1962. [21]

Freud is President of the Freud Museum London. [22]

Freud has appeared in the TV programme Time Team (series 13, episode 6) about the village of Eastry. [23]

Arms

The Right Honourable
The Lord Freud
PC
Official portrait of Lord Freud crop 2, 2019.jpg
Official portrait, 2019
Minister of State for Welfare Reform [lower-alpha 1]
In office
11 May 2010 –21 December 2016
Preceded by Jim Knight
Succeeded by The Lord Henley
Coat of arms of David Freud, Baron Freud
Coronet of a British Baron.svg
Freud Escutcheon.png
Crest
An elephant's head Azure armed Argent and grasping in the trunk a quill in bend sinister also Argent spined Or.
Escutcheon
Azure a pile reversed terminating in a roundel Argent and surmounted by two bars conjoined to two flaunches Or each charged with a flauch Azure.
Supporters
On either side a bat the wings displayed and inverted Argent the limbs Or membered Argent. [24]
Motto
Frangar Non Flectar
Badge
Three bats displayed in pairle heads inwards the wings displayed and inverted Argent the limbs Or membered Argent.

Notes

  1. ↑ Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State from May 2010 to May 2015.

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References

  1. 1 2 "David Anthony Freud". Debrett's.
  2. ↑ Confessions of an apologetic investment banker, The Guardian, 4 August 2006
  3. ↑ "Lord Freud was a Tory time-bomb just waiting to explode". The Independent. 16 October 2014. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 Hope, Christopher (15 October 2014). "Lord Freud: former City banker with a reputation for gaffes" . The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  5. ↑ "Reducing dependency, increasing opportunity: options for the future of welfare to work" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 May 2016. Retrieved 24 April 2016.
  6. ↑ Catherine Haddon. "The Work Programme 2007-2010" (PDF). Institute for Government.
  7. ↑ "Welfare is a mess, says adviser David Freud". Daily Telegraph. 2 February 2008.
  8. ↑ "No one written off: reforming welfare to reward responsibility" (PDF). July 2008.
  9. ↑ Wintour, Patrick (16 February 2009). "Purnell's welfare reform adviser defects to the Conservatives". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  10. ↑ "Profile:Sir David Freud". BBC News. 15 February 2009. Archived from the original on 17 February 2009.
  11. ↑ Rawnsley, Andrew (2010). The End of the Party: The Rise and Fall of New Labour. London: Penguin Books. pp. 654–655.
  12. ↑ Lords Hansard for 29 June 2009
  13. ↑ "Freudian Analysis". Politics Home. 23 November 2012. Archived from the original on 19 December 2019. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  14. ↑ "Tory welfare minister apologises after saying disabled are 'not worth' the minimum wage". The Independent. 15 October 2014.
  15. ↑ "Rt Hon Lord Freud".
  16. ↑ "Universal Credit minister Lord Freud announces retirement from Government". Archived from the original on 2 December 2016. Retrieved 2 December 2016.
  17. ↑ Heffer, Greg (9 February 2021). "Conservative peer Lord Freud found to have attempted to influence judges over sex assault MP's case". Sky News. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  18. ↑ House of Lords Commissioner for Standards (9 February 2021). "The conduct of Lord Freud" (PDF). House of Lords. UK Parliament. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  19. 1 2 Savage, Michael (20 June 2021). "Don't slash Covid benefit uplift, former Tory minister urges". The Observer. Retrieved 20 June 2021.
  20. ↑ "The Portland Trust" (PDF). 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 May 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2016.
  21. ↑ "Our People". Volunteering Matters. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  22. ↑ "A New President and New Trustees". Freud Museum London. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  23. ↑ Time Team s13 ep6
  24. ↑ Debrett's Peerage. 2015. p. 476.
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