Miatta Fahnbulleh on voters’ key test in 2029, Parliament’s ‘unsaid rules’, learning from Harman and reaching net zero

Cutting energy bills is critical for Labour’s success at the ballot box at the next general election, the government’s energy consumers minister has said.

In an exclusive sit-down interview with LabourList in Parliament, Peckham MP and energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh spoke of the need to improve living standards before 2029, as well as the drive to reduce Britain’s exposure to volatile global fossil fuel markets –and her jump from being a CEO of a think tank to MP to minister in less than a year.

Fahnbulleh said that no one is more impatient to get bills done than her – other than “my boss”, Ed Miliband.

“This election and the next election, in my view, has been underpinned by the story about living standards. We had the unprecedented situation where living standards did not budge for 15 years, and we have never had that in recent history.”

‘If we haven’t dealt with living costs, the verdict won’t be pretty’

The south London MP said that the question at the last election and the next election will be the same – whether voters feel better off than they did five years ago.

She said that the government has a two-pronged approach to ensuring people feel a boost in living standards.  Firstly, “people have to feel that they have more money coming into their pockets”.

“The things that we are doing to try and boost the economy is all about driving people’s wages and incomes, the stuff we’re trying to do through the Employment Rights Bill is all about making sure we are making work pay.”

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But she adds that secondly, “it’s also the cost of those essentials – and energy is at the top of them”.

“People will ask a very simple question – are we better off now than we were five years ago? And if we haven’t done our job on dealing with the cost of essentials that are a massive burden on people at the moment, the verdict won’t be a pretty verdict.

“We’ve all got our marching orders, we know what we need to do. We’ve got four and a bit years to crack on – we’ve got to make it happen.”

‘That was the thing that made me think this is the time to make a pivot’

Fahnbulleh said she could see as a first-generation immigrant in her community how the economy doesn’t work well for people.

“I’ve always been an economist, and the thing that has been the driving passion and commitment throughout my campaign is how do we get the economy to work for people.”

Labour figures vary in their enthusiasm for more cautious or radical economic reform, but Fahnbulleh appears in the latter camp – saying her previous work was all about “trying to persuade policymakers to take on ideas that would fundamentally transform the economy”.

During her time as CEO of the New Economics Foundation, she worked with other organisations on the Build Back Better campaign, a phrase adopted by Boris Johnson for his plan for economic recovery post-pandemic.

“I think it was the pandemic that was the turning point for me. I always thought I would be in the world of policy and campaigning and there was a big groundswell of ‘this has to be a turning point’.”

Fahnbulleh explained that Johnson promised to rewire the economy and address levels of inequality but, in reality, conditions reverted back to “worse than the old normal”.

“I was just like, ‘we need people who can campaign from the outside’, because that’s how you shift politics in my view, but we also need people in politics who can help try and drive some of those ideas from the inside. That was the thing that made me think this is the time to make a pivot.”

It was also at that point that she saw that the south London constituency of Peckham was looking for a new candidate, following the decision of Harriet Harman to stand down after more than four decades as the local MP.

“There is a big Sierra Leone community in Peckham – it’s my home from home. Growing up as a Sierra Leonean here, Peckham is where go to get your food, where you go for your hair. I was like this is my seat if I can get it.”

‘True to herself whilst being fiercely loyal’

Fahnbulleh paid tribute to her predecessor Harriet Harman, particularly for the lessons she learnt from her time as the MP.

“She was able to combine being true to herself whilst being fiercely loyal, having national cut-through and impact, but fundamentally rooted and serving a community.

“I knocked on people’s doors and everyone had a story about how Harriet impacted their lives and then they would tell you ‘big shoes’.

“That’s the way you do it. There are a handful of politicians that do it in the way she’s done it – and so for me, it was incredibly inspiring to be able to learn from that.”

‘Real big shift’ from think tank CEO to government minister

Having been selected as Labour’s candidate in November 2022, Fahnbulleh left her post at the New Economics Foundation last January, before her election to Parliament at the election in July. Less than a week after becoming an MP, she was appointed as minister for energy consumers in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

“It’s been a real big shift. Being an MP is a huge privilege – it’s so exciting coming in with such a big cohort of new intake Labour colleagues, but you’ve got to learn this place and it’s a kind of weird ecosystem that has its own rules and you learn by being there.

“You’re straight in, trying to figure out all these unsaid rules and the way to have impact in this place – and then you get, what is a privilege, but the sort of double job of being a minister.

“I feel lucky, I’ve worked in government before, so I’ve seen it from the other side. I know how government works and so that helps when you’re trying to drive things though.”

‘This is the way in which we will get bills down’

Her brief is perhaps one of the most important in the government, at a time when many are struggling to deal with the costs of their energy bills.

Fahnbulleh said that the main factor that has driven up bills over the last couple of years has been the UK’s exposure to global fossil fuel markets.

“If you think about the price cap increases, the majority, 80 percent, of it has been driven by increases in the wholesale price. In the end, the route to solving that is weaning ourselves off fossil fuels and wholesale on the global market, which is why we are moving to deliver clean home-grown energy at such pace.

“When we started, people were quite sceptical if we could get to clean energy by 2030. I think everyone has been staggered at the pace that we are driving through the things we need to do; removing the ban on onshore wind, the biggest ever auction that’s been delivered for renewables.

“We are absolutely driving it – and in the end, that is the way in which we will get bills down.”

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Fahnbulleh acknowledges the need for more immediate relief for those struggling with bills now. She highlighted the deal negotiated with energy suppliers that saw them put aside £500m to cushion the pain of rising bills – “the largest ever contribution that they put in in order to support people that winter”.

She also underlined the government’s consultation on extending the Warm Homes Discount, a debt support scheme to help those who have accumulated debt and can’t access energy, and plans to double the number of homes being upgraded to help lower bills for households.

“We’re doing things in the short term, we’ll continue trying to think about what we can do to insulate people, but in the end the bottom line is the way we get ourselves off this dependence on global markets, that in the end will be driven by the likes of Putin and dictators and not driven by us as a country.”

While she said that bills may fall if a peace deal is agreed to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she said that the government “won’t take a gamble on geopolitics”.

“The big driver of the wholesale price spikes that we’ve seen has been disruption to gas supply through Europe because of the war in Ukraine.

“Peace will ease that off, but what I would say is that it is a very volatile, precarious and unstable world – and so we can’t really gamble with geopolitics working in our interest.”

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‘The future is clean power’

Despite the government’s commitment to green energy, several oil and gas companies, including BP and Shell, have scaled back their commitments to renewables, as the new Trump administration encourages the exploitation of fossil fuels.

Fahnbulleh suggested that businesses that make that pivot away from clean energy will be missing out on opportunities and growth in the long term.

“We are very clear that the future is clean power. All the businesses I talk to see this as the big opportunity. There is a global race to do this. At its heart, fossil fuels are a finite resource that is fast depleting. The future is in renewables.

“The CBI came out with a report saying the green economy is one of the fastest growing economies. Our job as a government is to enable and incentivise that. I think the companies that can see where we’re heading, the journey that not just this country but the globe is going through over the next 20-30 years, are on board – because this is where the investment opportunities will be.”

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‘The reason I’m so passionate is not to get accolades – it’s because it’s good for people’

One of the government’s more controversial decisions on energy has been the means testing of the winter fuel allowance, a move that Fahnbulleh admits was “tough”, but she stressed the work the government is doing in both the short and long term to provide support and bring bills down.

“I get asked questions constantly about it. It’s tough for people out there. Everyday I wake up and I know, in my own patch and my own constituency, that people are struggling and energy is at the heart of that. It is an essential good, it’s not a luxury good, that you have a choice about whether you use energy or not. You need it for bread-and-butter things and our job is to make that affordable and accessible, and it’s not at the moment.

“My view is that we are getting the message out. We need to do more to take people on this journey. The reason I am so passionate, the reason I am busting a gut, and we are as a team, is not to get accolades – it’s because it’s good for people.

“The boss is always really clear – we’ve got a window, we’ve got a privileged opportunity that we’re in this position with clarity about what we need to do every day.

“We just drive at it, we work at it, and that’s all you can do.”

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