Labour's rising star Miatta Fahnbulleh: Who is Andy Burnham's new Net Zero Secretary?
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.
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.
Miatta Fahnbulleh arrives at Downing Street on July 20, to be appointed Net Zero Secretary Getty 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.
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.
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.”
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