Broadly the way Conservative MPs have responded to the news that Rishi Suank is about to water down net zero targets in predictable ways, with rightwingers sceptical about climate measures delighted, and green Tories alarmed.
But last night there was an interesting intervention from Simon Clarke. Clarke was one of Liz Truss’s most loyal supporters when she was PM, and last night her team were pointint out that she explicitly called for net zero targets to be watered down. She said:
We should – as many other Western countries are already doing – delay implementing Net Zero commitments such as the ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles from 2030. Other environmental regulations which are hiking the cost of living, like enforcing the replacement of gas and oil boilers, should also be abandoned.
Clarke was levelling up secretary in Truss’s cabinet. But he is also MP for Middlesbrough South and East Clevelend, in the north-east where the car industry is a big employer, and last night he posted a thread on X (Twitter) arguing that Sunak was on the verge of making a terrible mistake. It would be wrong to “shatter” the consensus on net zero, Clarke said.
Our climate is changing dramatically. The UK has carved out a world-leading role delivering net zero in a market-friendly way that will deliver clean, secure energy and thousands of jobs in deprived communities like Teesside. My Red Wall constituents overwhelmingly support it.
Our climate is changing dramatically. The UK has carved out a world-leading role delivering net zero in a market-friendly way that will deliver clean, secure energy and thousands of jobs in deprived communities like Teesside. My Red Wall constituents overwhelmingly support it.
We should be exceptionally careful of seeking to extract political advantage on this issue when the efforts of successive Prime Ministers - the majority of them Conservative - have been dedicated to upholding what Margaret Thatcher called a “full repairing lease” on our planet.
We should be exceptionally careful of seeking to extract political advantage on this issue when the efforts of successive Prime Ministers - the majority of them Conservative - have been dedicated to upholding what Margaret Thatcher called a “full repairing lease” on our planet.
Businesses rely on certainty to make major investments like that just secured from Tata in Somerset. It is unclear how they are to plan at all if we respond to one byelection in west London by tearing up key planks of government policy.
Businesses rely on certainty to make major investments like that just secured from Tata in Somerset. It is unclear how they are to plan at all if we respond to one byelection in west London by tearing up key planks of government policy.
When the history of this period of @Conservatives government is written, our leadership on climate issues will be one of our main achievements. We are fortunate to have a broad, non partisan consensus in the UK. How does it benefit either our country or our party to shatter it?
When the history of this period of @Conservatives government is written, our leadership on climate issues will be one of our main achievements. We are fortunate to have a broad, non partisan consensus in the UK. How does it benefit either our country or our party to shatter it?
I am very clear: the delivery of net zero should not be a hair-shirt exercise. But I am equally clear that it is in our environmental, economic, moral and (yes) political interests as @Conservatives to make sure we lead on this issue rather than disown it.
I am very clear: the delivery of net zero should not be a hair-shirt exercise. But I am equally clear that it is in our environmental, economic, moral and (yes) political interests as @Conservatives to make sure we lead on this issue rather than disown it.
Suella Braverman, the home secretary, was doing the media round this morning on behalf of No 10. As Aletha Adu reports, without giving details of what Rishi Sunak will announce, she backed the idea of watering down net zero targets.
We’ve achieved a huge amount in the last decade … but ultimately, we have to adopt a pragmatic approach, a proportionate approach, and one that also serves our goals. And we’re not going to save the planet by bankrupting the British people.
And, in an interview with the Today programme, Braverman implied the current net zero targets were “punitive. She said:
We need to make sure these [net zero] targets are achievable. We need to make sure, whatever goal we set, is going to be affordable, it’s going to be sustainable, and ultimately that it’s deliverable. We don’t want to set targets which are totally unrealistic and punitive.
Asked if she was saying the targets were totally unrealistic when Boris Johnson set them, she said targets always had to be assessed in the light of “changing factors’.
Braverman is aligned with the wing of the Conservative party sceptical about net zero, and she may have been speaking as she did because she wants to encourage Sunak not to change his mind at the last minute. The BBC was reporting this morning that what the PM will announce has not yet been 100% finalised.
But what Braverman was saying was broadly in line with what Sunak has been saying himself. After the Uxbridge and South Ruislip byelection in July, when the government was starting to wobble on net zero, Sunak himself said that the policy should be applied “in a proportionate and pragmatic way”. He also implied the current policies were too costly for consumers.
Darren Jones, shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, was giving interviews this morning. Echoing the line used by other Labour figures, he said Rishi Sunak’s handling of the net zero targets was “chaotic”. He said:
This is a classic example of Rishi Sunak’s weak leadership. You don’t announce these big changes in industrial policy via a leak from Downing Street and a late-night press release from the prime minister’s bunker.
Ministers didn’t seem to know, we’ve just seen … the home secretary didn’t know the details. Tory MPs didn’t know, which is why they’re furious on the airwaves and some calling for Rishi Sunak to go, and businesses won’t have known, in the weeks where Tory ministers have been signing off hundreds of millions of pounds to help businesses get ready for these long-held targets.
This is a chaotic approach to running the country, it’s completely unacceptable and it’s harming the economy.
Joanna Partridge has more on the car industry criticising Rishi Sunak for reportedly being on the verge of announcing that he is going to delay the point at which the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars comes into force.
Here is the text of the statement Rishi Sunak issued last night confirming that he is set to announce a rethink on some net zero policies.
For too many years politicians in governments of all stripes have not been honest about costs and trade-offs. Instead, they have taken the easy way out, saying we can have it all.
This realism doesn’t mean losing our ambition or abandoning our commitments. Far from it. I am proud that Britain is leading the world on climate change. We are committed to net zero by 2050 and the agreements we have made internationally, but doing so in a better, more proportionate way.
Our politics must again put the long-term interests of our country before the short-term political needs of the moment.
No leak will stop me beginning the process of telling the country how and why we need to change.
As a first step, I’ll be giving a speech this week to set out an important long-term decision we need to make so our country becomes the place I know we all want it to be for our children.
Sunak’s opening sentence about politicians of all parties not being “honest about costs and trade-offs” seems to be a swipe at Boris Johnson. He is arguing that Johnson was cakeist about net zero, implying that people could enjoy the benefits of tackling the climate crisis without having to pay the costs.
Good morning. Last night we learned that Rishi Sunak is about to announce a major scaling back of some of the government’s net zero targets.
After the news broke, first on the BBC, Sunak issued a late-night statement in effect confirming the story. “Our politics must again put the long-term interests of our country before the short-term political needs of the moment,” he said, stretching credibility to breaking point because at Westminster it is probably impossible to find anyone who does not think putting “short-term political needs” ahead of the long-term national interests is precisely what Sunak is doing. The Conservatives’ electoral prospects are dire. Campaigning on small boats has not worked (for reasons explained well in a Twitter thread starting here). And so Sunak seems to be trying another electorally-motivated gambit, inspired partly by the outcome in Uxbridge and South Ruislip in the summer, which now could end up being seen as the most consequential byelection of modern times.
Last night we were reporting that Sunak was due to give details in a speech on Friday. Now there are suggestions it will be brought forward, with Chris Mason, the BBC’s political editor, saying this morning it could even happen today.
So far, reaction has been intense – but largely predictable.
In favour: Rightwing Conservative MPs who have always been sceptical about net zero policies, and the Tory papers. Here is the Daily Mail splash (which is quite similar to the one it ran on the day after Liz Truss’s mini-budget).
Against:Green-leaning Tory MPs, opposition parties (although Labour is not saying it will reverse anything Sunak announces), environmentalists (in the UK and abroad), and the car industry.
We have just had a statement from Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford UK, saying that if, as reported, Sunak abandons the plan to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030, that would undermine the investment Ford has been making in the British car industry. She said:
This is the biggest industry transformation in over a century and the UK 2030 target is a vital catalyst to accelerate Ford into a cleaner future. Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three. We need the policy focus trained on bolstering the EV [electric vehicle] market in the short term and supporting consumers while headwinds are strong: infrastructure remains immature, tariffs loom and cost-of- living is high.
The Commons is not sitting today, and so Sunak will not face questions from MPs. There is not much in the political diary, but I will be focusing on this issue most of the day.
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