Burnham’s radical Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh is putting together her SpAd team. Guido presents their policy views – Miatta’s are well-known to co-conspirators…
Colm Britchfield has worked mostly at climate think tank E3G, where he specialised in energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation. Some of his positions:
Some co-conspirators will be aware of Carys Roberts, who used to run the left-wing think tank IPPR. She had a stint in Starmer’s policy unit before leaving in 2025. Her relevant positions here:
As a bonus, here’s some post-colonial wokery Roberts argued in a report:
“As policymakers seek to accelerate automation and the adoption of green technologies, they should also consider the impact on global communities. A transition which relies on exploitative labour in the global south and the unsustainable use of global resources and natural commons by countries such as the UK, with existing colonial and industrial debts, would not be a just transition… we may need to evaluate whether those technologies can be used, or if we need to find new technologies that use resources more efficiently.“
A problem for green tech there – anyone know where the cobalt, lithium, and manganese comes from?
Former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham in the Makerfield campaign Lord Jim O’Neill, who has turned down a role in his government, said Burnham’s first statement Commons was:
“The last thing investors wanted to hear… gilt yields have risen by a 0.25% in one day, which is a lot. We’ve not had that since Liz Truss days… If your country is under the focus of ‘can they come up with a sensible fiscal strategy’ on a day when the markets think ‘well no, you’re not showing any sign of it’ you’re going to have a tough day…if it stays like this your mortgage rate is going up.”