The U.K.'s most destructively feckless prime minister (since the last one) is history, but Keir Starmer's likely successor could prove Britain's final undoing — if the radical Liberian-born advisor who serves as Andy Burnham's "brains" gets her way.
Burnham, former Mayor of Greater Manchester, won the Makerfield by-election on June 18 with an impressive 55% of the vote — a full rebuke of Reform U.K., too — sending him to Parliament where he'll make a run at Number 10 Downing St. At least one potential rival, Wes Streeting, stood aside and endorsed Burnham on Monday, pretty much clearing his path.
In his endorsement, Streeting said he wants Labour to pursue "a progressive capitalism focused on wealth creation as much as wealth distribution," but nobody seems to have told the "brains" behind Burnham: the Liberian-born daughter of lefty radicals, Miatta Fahnbulleh.
CutMyTaxUK reported last year that Fahnbulleh "was born in Liberia as part of a prominent leftist revolutionary family, has served as a junior energy & housing minister in the Starmer government before resigning to support Burnham." Previously, as the "former head of the far-left New Economics Foundation," she proved "adept at churning out socialist policy proposals."
Or as CMT-UK put it, "Keir Starmer has appointed a Housing Minister who hates private housing."
Another U.K. publication, Guido Fawkes, put all of Fahnbulleh's most radical proposals in one handy list on Sunday:
- A wealth tax and yet another windfall tax on oil and gas.
- Mass nationalization e.g. of land, transport, and energy.
- Extending national [welfare] insurance [tax to include] to investment income.
- A cap on interest rates and charges on every form of consumer credit.
- Hiking capital gains tax to income tax levels.
- Hiking the dividend tax to income tax levels.
- Abolition of the upper earnings limit for national insurance.
- Huge expansion of the benefits system, including a “minimum income guarantee” paid to everyone apart from the rich.
- Nationalization of banks and creation of new “green” banks with taxpayer funds.
- Block on private banks lending to anyone with a “large amount of greenhouse gas emissions” and “penalization of banks that provide too many carbon-intensive loans.“
- Forced sale of existing businesses to employees.
- A tripling of the stamp duty [property tax, basically] surcharge to 9% for multiple homeowners and an increase to 6% for non-residents.
So, apart from urging the destruction of the energy industry, banking, and investment, ending private ownership of industry and housing, and a massive expansion of Britain's welfare state, she's practically a right-winger.
Cough, cough.
Here's a quick look at Fahnbulleh's background:
This article introduces the new ‘Slightly Dark Svengali’ figure ‘intellectually influencing’ Andy Burnham from the shadows - Miatta Fahnbulleh. Unlike previous ‘Slightly Dark Svengali’ figures like say Dominic Cummings or Sue Gray this one has a fun Yookay twist. Her actual… https://t.co/NlAB3zB4SL pic.twitter.com/9cwVRgyYqK
— ɖʀʊӄքǟ ӄʊռʟɛʏ 🇧🇹🇹🇩 (@kunley_drukpa) June 20, 2026
Britain isn't just importing mass numbers of Third Worlders; it's importing Third World lefty radicalism that the West once pounded into smithereens under Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan during the last years of the Cold War.
The New Statesman's Nick Plumb describes Fahnbulleh's governing philosophy as "radical co-operativism," but all these generations later, Karl Marx couldn't help but notice the family resemblance. But what's the big deal about a former Housing Minister with a radical laundry list of ways to destroy what's left of the British economy?
As CMT-UK also put it, there are "two worrying aspects to this New Statesman article." The first is that "Burnham apparently doesn't have many brains," and the second is that "Fahnbulleh is filling the gap."
Fahnbulleh is one of Burnham's key allies, campaigned for him in last week's big by-election win, and previously helped shape policy for a potential Burnham government, according to the BBC.
By trading Starmer for Burnham, Britain very well may be going out of the frying pan and into the fire.
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