Allen Simpson

Allen Mark Simpson (born 12 September 1982) is a British politician and financial policy expert. He is the Labour Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) for Maidstone and the Weald for the 2015 UK general election.
Politics
Simpson is the Labour Party candidate for Maidstone and the Weald in the 2015 General Election. Simpson is seen as being on the economic Right of the Labour Party and has written about the importance of fiscal constraint. He has also written about the need for the Labour Party to do more to attract economic and business expertise.
Writing
Simpson’s articles have appeared in Centre-Left journals and national media, most often discussing the post crisis economy, the dangers of over-reliance on debt, and trade.
In an article for the London newspaper City A.M, Simpson wrote that the response in much of the West to the 2008 financial crisis had been to “make the same mistakes at an even greater intensity.” He argued for “a historic shift away from a subsidised dependency on debt towards self-sustaining alternatives like equity capital”
He also contributed the regular economics column in the Fabian Society magazine Anticipations. Writing in the January 2012 edition, Simpson argued that public sector spending in the UK was a restriction on economic growth, and accounted for a 1% GDP loss of GDP in 2009.
In a contribution to an essay collection called ‘If I were Chancellor’, Simpson wrote that the Government’s goal shouldn’t be to deliver short term growth, but to fix the structure of the economy, even at the expense of a slower economic recovery. He wrote that “In effect, we have two choices as an economy: we can use the tax code, monetary policy and direct government subsidies to try and keep the debt bubble on life support; or we can accept a slower return to growth but redraw our economy to be long term and self-sustaining.” This essay collection was submitted to the Labour Party’s policy review for the 2015 manifesto.
Writing for the Labour pressure group Progress Simpson argued that “The most important challenge for an economy like the UK in the modern world isn’t the fiscal deficit, it’s the trade deficit. Trade imbalances are the original sin of the western economies.”
Early life and career
Simpson attended Maidstone Grammar School in Kent and later graduated from the University of York in 2005.
Simpson worked for the Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP in the House of Commons. From 2008-2012 he worked at the London Stock Exchange as an advisor to the senior leadership. He currently leads the business finance public policy team at Barclays Bank.

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