Dear Prime Minister,

It has been the honour of my life to serve as a government minister, under three successive Prime Ministers, including these last five years as Pensions Minister.

My view is that it is important to work as a team and deliver on the priorities that matter most to my constituents in Northumberland. As a Minister, I accept and understand the requirement of collective ministerial agreement upon which our system relies. The record of this government, as we have faced the challenges of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the consequential impact on the cost of living and inflation is something I am immensely proud to have been a part of. I have backed you throughout these challenges.

We both know I was particularly upset at the behaviour of the Number Ten team during the Covid restrictions. I backed you in January 2022 because I wanted to see a real change in approach in Number Ten. I have given you ample opportunity to show real change. Sadly, recent events have shown clearly that government simply cannot function with you in charge. In good faith, and with regret, for the good of the country, I must ask you to stand down. No one individual, however successful in the past, is bigger than the party, or this great country.

I am proud of what we have achieved at the DWP. I want to put on record my thanks to the DWP civil servants and ministerial teams I have worked with to produce and pass five Acts of Parliament, grow workplace and state pensions to record levels, and passing the ground-breaking Pension Schemes Act that dramatically reforms pensions in the UK. I could go on, and there is much more reform I would have liked to have done, but I have to ask you to step aside. It is therefore with deep regret that I resign from your government.

Yours sincerely,

Guy Opperman MP

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