David Freud, Baron Freud

David Freud, Baron Freud

David Anthony Freud, Baron Freud (born 24 June 1950) is a British journalist, businessman, Conservative politician and welfare adviser and is a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. He is a great grandson of Sigmund Freud, and son of Annette Krarup and Walter Freud.

Education

Freud attended Whitgift School, an independent school in Croydon, south London, followed by Merton College, Oxford.^[1]

Life and career

Finance

Freud was first employed by the Financial Times as a journalist, writing the Lex column over a period of four years. In 1983 he was hired by the firm then known as Rowe & Pitman.

He worked on more than 50 deals, raising more than £50bn in 19 countries. Many were high profile, including the flotations of Eurotunnel and EuroDisney, while he orchestrated the rescue of the Channel Tunnel railway link and National Air Traffic Services. His role in the deals earned him a great deal of publicity and occasionally criticism and is viewed differently depending on the political bias of the perceiver, some would recognise the contribution to the UK economy and standards of living and some may criticize what they perceive with hindsight as "inaccurate and optimistic" information. ^[2]

Davis Freud's book Freud in the City portrays his life as an employee of an investment bank prior to the financial crisis and helps to inform the debate about the contributions both positive and negative of the banking sector to the economy then and now.

Welfare reform

David Freud's involvement in welfare reform makes him the target of those who oppose reform, in late 2006, Freud was appointed by the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to provide a nominally independent review of the British welfare to work system. ^[3] His subsequent recommendations called for expanded private sector involvement to contain the cost burdens on working people of all income levels, for substantial resources to be found to help those on Incapacity Benefit back into "economic activity" and for single parents to be assisted to enable them to find paid employment and enhance their living standards.

He was later rehired as an adviser to the Labour government when, James Purnell was appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in 2008. He was involved in producing a white paper, published in December 2008, which would enable people receiving benefits to participate in some form of employment or prepare formally to find paid employment. "We cannot have people simply loafing about, doing nothing and expecting the state to finance their lifestyles," he said in comments to the white paper in question. "That is the way to the destruction of our society."

In February 2009, Freud joined the Conservative Party, which at that time was not in government. On 27 June 2009 he was created a life peer as Baron Freud, of Eastry in the county of Kent,^[4] and became a shadow minister for welfare in the House of Lords.^[5]

• Freud family

References

External links

• Lord Freud – TheyWorkForYou
• Profile: Sir David Freud
• Government adviser to join Tories