Miatta Fahnbulleh has soared into the Cabinet at record speed. The Peckham MP was appointed to Andy Burnham’s top team just two years and 16 days after winning her London seat at the 2024 general election.
Meteoric rise
The new Net Zero Secretary has had a quicker rise into the Cabinet than other Labour high-flyers including Ed Miliband and Ed Balls, as well as Tory rapid risers including Sir James Cleverly, Sir John Major and Lord Lawson. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Lucy Rigby, from the 2024 intake of MPs, started attending meetings of Sir Keir Starmer’s top team from May 14, but she was not a full member of the Cabinet.
On the soft Left of the Labour Party, Ms Fahnbulleh, 46, is understood to have advised Mr Burnham on economic policy. She has told how he plans to make central Government “far smaller” and more “strategic” as part of his landmark devolution of power to the regions.
Labour woes
Ms Fahnbulleh, the former chief executive of Left-leaning think tank the New Economics Foundation, has been at the heart of the Labour Party’s rollercoaster in recent months. Just days before the May local elections, she was enthusiastically applauding Sir Keir as he rallied Labour activists in London. The Prime Minister had travelled to Walworth in Southwark to urge Labour party members to launch a final push to woo voters ahead of the May 7 local elections.
But shortly after the disastrous election results for Labour, she shocked Westminster by becoming the first minister to resign from Sir Keir’s Government, plunging his premiership into increasing peril. In a post on X, the minister for devolution, faith, and communities said: “Our country faces enormous challenges and people are crying out for the scale of change that this requires. The public does not believe that you can lead this change – and nor do I.” She added: “I urge the Prime Minister to do the right thing for the country and the Party and set a timetable for an orderly transition.”
Her links to Mr Miliband, then seen as a potential successor to Sir Keir or a key power broker, made her resignation particularly significant.
Election victory
Ms Fahnbulleh, who studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford before a PhD in economics at the London School of Economics, stepped into the shoes of Harriet Harman, now in the Lords, as Labour’s candidate for Peckham in 2024. She was one of 411 Labour MPs who entered the Commons as part of Labour’s landslide victory in the general election. She secured 58.8 per cent of the vote share to win the seat.
A week into her new role as MP, Ms Fahnbulleh was asked to become a junior minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, run by Mr Miliband. Before becoming an MP, she had already worked as an economics adviser to Mr Miliband when he was leader of the Labour Party and to former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. Ms Fahnbulleh had a long career in public policy prior to her election as MP for Peckham, including a stint at the Cabinet Office and six years as chief executive of the New Economics Foundation.
Peckham MP
Her policy in Peckham has been centred around housing, opportunities for young people, and tackling the cost of living crisis in her borough. She has run a series of campaigns including to improve housing on the Aylesbury Estate, partly by putting more pressure on Southwark Council to respond faster to complaints and to do repairs swiftly.
Outside of Peckham, her department has been driving the transition towards net zero, in the face of criticism from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and the Conservatives. Its latest priorities have included tackling fuel poverty and the warm homes plans.
Family background
Ms Fahnbulleh is of Liberian and Sierra Leonean descent. Her father too has a background in public policy and politics, having served as a minister in Samuel Doe’s government. The family fled Sierra Leone after her father spoke out against Doe’s dictatorship, forcing the family to claim asylum in the UK. Since then, she has lived in Peckham. On her website, she wrote: “it was this community that taught me the values of compassion and solidarity that have shaped my politics. And it was here I first understood just how much the system is failing all of us.”
