Miatta Fahnbulleh (politician)

Miatta Nema Fahnbulleh (born 29 September 1979) is a British politician and economist. A member of Labour Co-op, she was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Peckham in the 2024 general election. Fahnbulleh is currently serving as a junior minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, appointed by Keir Starmer. She is considered to belong to the soft left of the Labour Party.

Early life and education

Fahnbulleh was born in Liberia to a Liberian father and a Sierra Leonean mother and has a brother, Gamal. The family fled at the onset of the First Liberian Civil War in 1986 to the UK where they applied for asylum.

Fahnbulleh attended Beechwood Sacred Heart School, an independent school in Tunbridge Wells. After studying at Lincoln College, Oxford, she graduated in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy, politics and economics and obtained a PhD degree in Economic Development in 2005 from the London School of Economics. Fahnbulleh wrote her thesis on the adoption of and success of industrial policy in Ghana and Kenya.

Early career

Fahnbulleh was the Head of Cities in the policy unit at the Cabinet Office from 2011 to 2013; the director of policy and research at the IPPR from December 2016 to November 2017; and the Chief Executive of the New Economics Foundation between November 2017 and December 2023. She was also a Policy Fellow at the think tank Labour Together.

On 22 May 2022, Fahnbulleh was a recipient of the MotheRED grant, which provides funding for mothers to stand as parliamentary candidates for the Labour Party. In September 2022, Fahnbulleh announced that she was standing to be the prospective parliamentary candidate in Camberwell and Peckham at the next general election. On 19 November 2022, she was selected by local Labour Party members as the candidate to succeed Harriet Harman, who stood down after 40 years as an MP.

While still a Parliamentary candidate, in June 2024 the New Statesman named Fahnbulleh 47th in ''The Left Power List 2024'', the magazine's "guide to the 50 most influential people in progressive politics", describing her as "a natural candidate to join the front bench".

Fahnbulleh has been a regular panellist on the BBC television programme '' Question Time''.

Parliamentary career

In the 2024 general election, she was elected in Peckham with a reduced majority. On 9 July 2024, Fahnbulleh was appointed as a junior minister (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State) in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Political views

Fahnbulleh is a member of the Labour and Co-operative parties. Ideologically, she is considered to belong to the soft left of the Labour Party. She has campaigned for urgent action on the climate crisis. A left-wing economist, she has described herself as a heterodox economist and has advocated for change to the economic system.

Personal life

Fahnbulleh is married to Graham and has three children. Her aunt is the singer Miatta Fahnbulleh, with whom she shares a name.

References

External links

Miatta Fahnbulleh
on Twitter

Campaign website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fahnbulleh, Miatta
1979 births
Alumni of the London School of Economics
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Black British MPs
Black British women academics
British women academics
Black British academics
Black British women politicians
British women economists
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Labour Co-operative MPs for English constituencies
Liberian emigrants to the United Kingdom
Living people
People educated at Beechwood Sacred Heart School
People from Royal Tunbridge Wells
Place of birth missing (living people)
Refugees in the United Kingdom
UK MPs 2024–present
British people of Liberian descent
British people of Sierra Leonean descent