Olivia Blake MP: Shadow minister steps down from Labour frontbench citing new focus on Sheffield 'priorities'

A resignation letter, posted by Ms Blake on Wednesday night on Twitter, cites Labour’s Green New Deal as the only way the UK can combat climate change and bring about the transition needed to meet the UK’s net-zero commitments.

In it, she wrote: “Our country is in crisis. We are facing a climate and ecological emergency, the biggest crisis our planet has ever faced, and the worst cost of living crisis felt in decades.

"Yet this Government has continually failed to act to address it, with nothing but empty promises, dither and delay.”

Ms Blake has worked as the shadow minister for climate change since December 2021 and will now return to backbench politics.

She has announced she will be committing herself to the priorities of her constituents who ‘have been through a period of huge collective turmoil’ during the Covid-19 pandemic and current cost of living crisis.

She said: “I am proud to have worked alongside talented colleagues – Ed Miliband, Alan Whitehead, and their teams – to progress £28 billion climate investment pledge, champion Labour’s retrofit revolution, fight the government’s dangerous decision to expand fossil fuel extraction and successfully force ministers to adopt a windfall tax to alleviate the ongoing energy crisis.

"I have had a lot of time to reflect on this decision and I have my own personal reasons for wanting to step back from the frontbench at this time.”

Ms Blake’s resignation from the frontbench is effective immediately.