Guy Opperman has resigned as minister for pensions and financial inclusion over Boris Johnson's leadership. Update: The prime minister has said he will step down after losing dozens of MPs from his government.

In a tweet posted this morning, Opperman said: "It has been a honour, and a great responsibility, to serve as a minister, but we need leadership change, and I have resigned. I will continue to work for my constituents in Hexham from the backbenches."

He added: "I resign with great regret, given there are serious ongoing issues that need addressing ranging from cost of living support, to legislation, & parliamentary debates. It should not take the resignation of 50 colleagues, but sadly the PM has left us no choice. He needs to resign."
   

The former pensions minister, who already served under Theresa May, taking on the job in 2017, had criticised PM Boris Johnson previously for the lockdown parties in Number 10 Downing Street.

Around the time of these parties, Opperman lost his newborn twins and was unable to be with his wife in hospital because of pandemic restrictions.
     

 
Given Johnson's resignation, it is currently unclear if Opperman will return as part of a caretaker arrangement until a new leader has been elected. He could also be offered the brief again by the new leader in the autumn.

The work and pensions secretary, Therese Coffey, has stood by Johnson. She said "the wheels of government need... to keep turning".
 

The pensions minister has made his mark on pensions legislation and regulations, introducing climate reporting requirements, collective defined contribution schemes and greater powers for the Pensions Regulator among others. He has also brought in regulations encouraging greater scheme consolidation and moving the pensions dashboards project forward.

Reacting to the resignation, the president of the Society of Pension Professionals, Steve Hitchiner, said: "This is a time of significant change for the pensions industry with a number of big and important projects in the pipeline. Therefore, we sincerely hope that any political uncertainty regarding the long-term role of pensions minister is resolved swiftly."

The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association said it was too early to say anything. Nigel Peaple, director policy & advocacy, said: “Given the current uncertainty about the government of the country, we are not commenting on developments until there is more clarity about the future.”

Tim Middleton, director of policy and external affairs at the Pensions Management Institute, noted that Opperman recently became the longest-serving pensions minister ever, meaning the industry had become accustomed to a period of stability. 

"His style was frequently challenging, but nobody could question his determination to achieve significant reforms within the workplace pensions sector. The most significant aspect of his legacy will no doubt be the establishment of the pensions dashboard, and it is unfortunate that he has been unable to follow this through to its conclusion," he said.

Middleton added that the pensions industry – and the country as a whole – must now prepare for a period of instability before normality is restored. 

"Mr Opperman’s successor will inherit a pensions sector that has benefited from years of prudent stewardship marked by reform and development," he said.

Kate Smith, head of pensions at provider Aegon, said the minister’s resignation leaves pensions in turmoil. 

 

“He was personally leading a number of initiatives to improve pensions engagement including the pension dashboard and the pension engagement season. We had been expecting the government response to the DWP pension dashboard consultation with final regulations any day and everything hangs off this, including the timetable for schemes to connect to dashboards. Every day delayed puts the smooth implementation of the dashboard in jeopardy," she said.

 

Initiatives to improve member engagement with their pensions were gathering momentum and need to continue at pace, she added.

 

“Crucially, the minister’s resignation could also impact the next steps for auto-enrolment, including lowering the minimum age from 22 to 18 and basing minimum contributions from the first pound, as well as finding solutions for the self-employed," she said, noting that the pensions minister had recommitted only this week to implementing these in the mid-2020s, and suggested increasing the minimum contributions from 8% to 12% over time.

Laurie Edmans, a commissioner of the Financial Inclusion Commission, said he was sorry to see the pensions minister step down, hoping he might come back.

 

"I have seen, as a member of the Mid-Life MoT board he set up, and from what he is trying to achieve generally, that he really cares and really wants to see people have sufficient retirement savings to have, securely, the lifestyle in retirement they expect," Edmans said, which for the majority was now unlikely to happen. 

Edmans called savings inadequacy a big problem which "cannot be solved, as many in the industry would have it, by just whacking up AE contribution rates" given the current rate of inflation and pressure on wages.
 

Edmans said there was currently no consensus for a solution or even agreement on the nature of the problems, calling for "a study as comprehensive and thoughtful" as the Pensions Commission of the early 2000s that led to to the introduction of automatic enrolment.

"Their analysis of the challenges was brilliant, and the wide acceptance of that analysis led to agreement on radical policies impossible without it," he said, adding: "The pensions world has changed hugely in the last 20 years. The solutions haven’t. They won’t without a broadly agreed understanding of what the problems are, and a open minded assessment of options to address them."

The Department for Work and Pensions and the Pensions Regulator have declined to comment.