RT HON Liam Byrne MP Visits the IES

On March 15 2012, RT HON Liam Byrne MP, the UK Labour Party’s Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, visited the IES and delivered a brief speech on “social security policy, social security reform and its economic consequences” and made an informal discussion on a wide range of issues with the IES researches, such as the changing environments that influence the welfare state, the underlying principles/ideas of the European Centre-left parties on the welfare state, impacts of the financial crisis on welfare state reform, possible cooperation between the UK and China on reforming welfare state, and etc.

As a member of the Labour Party, RT HON Liam Byrne MP was successively appointed  health minister, Minister of State for Police and Counter-Terrorism and Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He is also a member of the board of the international centre-left think-tank Policy Network and a member of the UK China Leadership Forum. He also helped found the UK-China Young Leaders Roundtable in 2010.

RT HON Liam Byrne has written widely about the position of the middle class, public service reform, economic development, and social solidarity in the UK. His publications include the following books: Local Government Transformed (1996), Information Age Government (1998), Cities of Enterprise (2002), Britain in 2020 (2003), Reinventing Government Again (with Phil Collins) (2004), Why Labour Won (2005), A Common Place (2007), A More United Kingdom ( 2008) and Why Did Labour Lose – and How Do We Win Again (2010).

Mrs. Katie Lee, Director of the Great Britain China Centre and Mr. Henry Bell, First Secretary to the Economic Section of the UK Embassy attended the discussion as well.