B&CE, provider of The People’s Pension, the UK’s biggest defined contribution (DC) master trust, has hired former Labour party pensions spokesman Gregg McClymont as director of policy and external affairs.

McClymont joins from Aberdeen Standard Investments where he was head of retirement, a role he held since losing his parliamentary seat in 2015.

Patrick Heath-Lay, B&CE’s chief executive officer, said: “Gregg’s commitment to delivering better retirement savings outcomes for working people is well recognised throughout the industry and in parliament.

“He has been a tireless supporter of automatic enrolment and a vocal campaigner for improved pensions options for UK workers. As a not-for-profit organisation, this aligns with B&CE’s aims and values and we are thrilled to be able to benefit from his extensive policy experience and industry expertise.”

McClymont served as an MP from 2010 to 2015. He is currently a member of the UK regulator’s Institutional Disclosure Working Group, which is developing a cost reporting standard for asset managers, and is a board member at the Tax-Incentivised Savings Association.

L-R: Graham Vidler, Gregg McClymont, Sir Steve Webb

Source: PLSA

Gregg McClymont (centre) appears on a panel at a PLSA conference with Graham Vidler (left) and Sir Steve Webb

He has also co-edited two books comparing pension systems from around the world, with Andy Tarrant, a former adviser to the Labour party who became head of Policy and government relations at The People’s Pension in 2016.

At B&CE, McClymont will take charge of policy and external affairs when he joins at the end of this month. He said he would also be working on the development of an “occupational health solution that will improve the lives of workers by treating health equally to safety, catching symptoms of ill health in the workplace early and helping them to stay in work longer”.

B&CE – originally founded as an industry-wide pension and health benefits provider for construction workers – launched The People’s Pension in 2011 in response to the UK’s automatic enrolment legislation. It now caters for nearly 4m workers from multiple industries.