‘Energy Secretary desires to get payments falling – however a lot is out of her management’
It’s clear the Energy Secretary is frustrated.
Miatta Fahnbulleh got into politics to improve people’s lives. But on her watch, energy bills will rise to the highest level in three years for millions of households this winter.
When the newly appointed Cabinet minister yesterday(WED) visited a Utilita energy support hub in Luton, she heard from customers worried about price rises.
Moses Ogwang, 60, from Luton, admitted he was concerned as he watched the news reports about the incoming price cap. Someone in the room said Ms Fahnbulleh is the person to talk to about that, quipping: “It’s her fault.”
The problem for Ms Fahnbulleh – and new PM Andy Burnham – is that plans to slash costs for struggling families are constantly being buffeted by forces outside of their control.
Global conflicts like the war in Iran or Russia’s invasion of Ukraine send prices rocketing and the UK Government has to scramble to deal with the aftermath.
Think back to Rachel Reeves’s fury at Donald Trump over the Iran war. The then-Chancellor in April told The Mirror it was a “folly” to have no clear exit plan as she watched her efforts to stabilise the British economy go up in smoke.
While there is more the government could – and has promised – to do to ease short-term pressures on bills, Ms Fahnbulleh said international shocks are “massively frustrating” as work is thrown off course.
The Labour MP for Peckham – who quit as an energy minister from Keir Starmer’s government – has made energy affordability her number one priority.
But we’ve heard this before. I asked her what she and Andy Burnham will do differently to Mr Starmer and Rachel Reeves, who received little credit for slashing energy bills by £150.
“I think the thing that people will see differently from Andy is that he’s really clear that yes, we’ve got to do the short-term things to provide breathing space, but we fundamentally have to reform a system that isn’t working for people,” she said.
Ms Fahnbulleh underlined the importance of long-term work to increase renewables and insulate Britain from global shocks. But as Mr Starmer and Ms Reeves found out, the public is impatient and structural changes to the broken energy system take time.
Some of Ms Fahnbulleh’s biggest critics are her children. When I asked her what they say to her about energy bills when she’s at home, she said with a laugh: “They say try harder.”
