Rishi Sunak must resist pressure and avoid backtracking on Britain’s net zero goals or risk losing the support of an environmentally responsible electorate, Conservative MPs have warned.
Many Tory MPs are privately very concerned that the prime minister’s desperation to appear on the side of motorists could see him lose sight of the country’s climate commitments. Many have, however, stopped short of publicly criticising him.
Sir Robert Buckland, a former Wales secretary and member of the Conservative Environment Network, said: “It’s really important the prime minister sticks to the legally binding commitments on net zero. Of course energy security has to be an important consideration but we shouldn’t be seeking to water down any commitment that we have already made.
“We have shown leadership on this area, and it’s time the prime minister resists calls to somehow backtrack on them.”
He added that it was too early to say Sunak was less passionate than Boris Johnson about reaching net zero.
On Monday, Sunak defended a decision to grant more than 100 new licences for oil and gas extraction as “entirely consistent” with the UK’s net zero commitments.
Speaking about the need for oil and gas, the prime minister said: “If we’re going to need it, far better to have it here at home rather than shipping it here from halfway around the world with two, three, four times, the amount of carbon emissions versus the oil and gas we have here at home.”
Yet one MP said colleagues had expressed concern in backbench WhatsApp groups that the PM’s move could lose them votes to the Liberal Democrats in some constituencies.
“I think we all recognise it has to be a balanced approach – yes, speak up for drivers, but we also need to reassure people that we’re serious about the environment,” they said. “Some MPs are worried we might be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We have to tread very carefully, and make sure it doesn’t look like we’re junking any commitments.”
A senior Conservative backbencher urged his wary party colleagues to “calm down”, insisting Sunak has not yet dropped any climate commitments.
Elliot Colburn, a Conservative MP in a marginal south London seat, said that opposition to London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) was a potent issue, and one he had campaigned on.
But Colburn, also a member of the Conservative Environment Network, added: “There is definitely a big sense locally here of environmental responsibility and people take that quite seriously.
“I’m very keen to ensure that we stick on the path to net zero, but I don’t think people view Ulez as the way to go about it.
“The overwhelming majority of the public agree that changes have to be made, but they also think that transition to net zero needs to be sustainable, achievable and one that takes people with you.”
“I’m not meeting people on the doorsteps who are very much in disagreement with net zero or view it all as rubbish. But what they do want is a more incentivised approach.”
The former cabinet minister Damian Green said Britain’s net zero commitments were “red lines” which should not be crossed, including the policy to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030.
