Politics Home | Ex-Energy Minister And Burnham Ally Says Tony Blair Is Wrong About Net Zero

Miatta Fahnbulleh was appointed energy minister in 2024 and then devolution minister in 2025, before resigning from government in May 2026 (Alamy)

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On Tuesday, Blair published a highly critical essay setting out where he believes the Labour government has made mistakes in its policy agenda, including its net zero drive and phasing out of the British oil and gas industry.

In the essay, Blair wrote that the government “should try to limit the effect of the changes made and remove those parts of the net-zero agenda which prioritise clean energy over cheaper energy”.

Fahnbulleh, who served as minister for energy consumers between 2024 and 2025, told PoliticsHome that Blair’s views on net zero were “wrong”. She said that while her own children “won’t forgive me if I duck our responsibility to respond to climate change”, it was also important that the UK make the most of the “massive opportunity” around a clean energy transition.

“There is a global industry that is building up around the green transition around renewables,” she said.

“China is at the absolute forefront of that. Why the hell would we not want a piece of that? Why would we not want to be on the front foot?”

She added it would be “strategically mad” not to focus on this as a way to reindustrialise and revive parts of the country.

Blair said that the government needed to focus on cheaper energy over clean energy, with the public continuing to struggle with rising costs of living and energy bills.

However, Fahnbulleh said that while the cost of energy is a “genuine problem”, it is “clearly a function of our dependence on global fossil fuel markets”.

“The way you solve that problem isn’t by pretending it doesn’t exist or burying your head in the sand,” she said.

“It’s by doing what we’re doing and making the push to clean power.”

Fahnbulleh stepped down as minister for devolution, faith and communities earlier this month, having previously served as an energy minister after being elected as the MP for Peckham in 2024. 

In her resignation letter, she called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to set a timetable for his departure from No 10, following heavy Labour losses at the 7 May local elections.

“Whilst progress has been made, we have not acted with the vision, pace and ambition that our mandate for change demands of us,” she wrote.

“Nor have we governed as a Labour Party clear about our values and strong in our convictions.”

Fahnbulleh is an ally of Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham and is helping develop his policy platform as he campaigns to win the Makerfield by-election with the hope of returning to Parliament and potentially challenging Starmer for the leadership.

“There’s one thing that Andy has to do, and that is win that by-election, and that’s not for any kind of leadership thing,” Fahnbulleh told PoliticsHome. 

“It’s because this is a battle between Labour and Reform. The politics and the psychology of whether we win this are far more important. It’s a straight-up fight.”

She said that if Labour can win in Makerfield with a campaign based on “a set of progressive ideas”, then it will be able to do so “in constituency after constituency”.

She said that Labour needed to make strong arguments around the “economic model failing”.

“If we win in Makerfield, it changes the political weather,” Fahnbulleh continued. “And it gives us a formula about how we win back those traditional Labour seats that we have lost to Reform that we’ve got to get back.”

Asked whether she thinks the Green Party should step aside in the by-election to allow Labour a clearer path to victory against Nigel Farage’s Reform, Fahnbulleh said they “can do what they like” but suggested that it would be in the political interests of Zack Polanski’s party to do so.

“I would have thought it’s not in their interest to have a resurgent Reform party, but ultimately that is their call,” she said.

“Some of their leaders, like Caroline Lucas, have said so, and I often think that when we’ve got experienced political leaders opining, whether we agree with it or not, it’s often worth reflecting on. And I say that with a reference back to Tony Blair.”

In his essay, Blair said Labour had gone too far to the left and accused his party of having an “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion”. As well as calling for a rethink on net zero, the former prime minister argued that the government must significantly reduce welfare spending and improve relationships with US President Donald Trump.

Both Burnham and former health secretary Wes Streeting, who is expected to enter a future Labour leadership contest, accused Blair of ignoring the issue of inequality in his analysis.

In his own response to Blair, Starmer said that NHS waiting times and net migration coming down were vindications of the government’s policy choices, and argued that his administration had inherited the worst economic situation in nearly 50 years.