Rishi Sunak was accused of “betrayal” by watering down climate change commitments aimed at reaching net zero by 2050 – sparking civil war in his own party and fury among environmentalists, businesses and international allies.
The prime minister held a panicked called with cabinet ministers on Wednesday before announcing that the planned 2030 ban on the sale of petrol and diesel cars will be pushed back until 2035.
Mr Sunak attacked climate “zealots” and said it was wrong to “impose such significant costs on working people”. He claimed to be acting to avoid a public backlash. “If we continue down this path we risk losing the consent of the British people.”
But Ford led a car industry backlash against Mr Sunak’s delay to the 2030 ban, warning that it would hit investment. And Al Gore, former US vice president, said Mr Sunak “is doing the wrong thing” by curbing green policies, saying: “I certainly disagree with him.”
It comes as:
Mr Johnson warned Mr Sunak he was in danger of losing “ambition for this country”, and said that businesses was desperate for “certainty about our net zero commitments”. His ally Lord Zac Goldsmith called for a general election “now”, saying the PM was “dismantling Britain’s credibility” on climate change.
Senior Tory Alok Sharma, Cop26 president, said the U-turn “will not help economically or electorally”, while former minister Sir Simon Clarke said the PM had acted against the country’s “environmental, economic, moral and political interests”.
Tory MP Chris Skidmore, who led the government’s recent net zero review, accused Mr Sunak of jeopardising the UK’s international standing. “It will potentially destabilise thousands of jobs and see investment go elsewhere,” he said.
More than 250 NGOs and businesses urged Mr Sunak not to weaken the UK’s net zero policies – warning against “the greatest act of economic self-harm since Liz Truss’s mini-budget” and “the historic mistake of Rishi Sunak’s premiership”.
Former Tory environment minister Lord Deben, who leads the government’s Climate Change Committee (CCC), attacked the PM’s “stupid” watering down of climate pledges – warning the move will be “extremely damaging” and may face a legal challenge.
Ford’s UK chair Lisa Brankin said the delayed ban undermined “ambition, commitment and consistency” in the transition to electric vehicles. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders asked: “What is the strategy here?”
David Savage, vice president of car supplier Geotab, said many in the industry investing heavily in this transition away from fossil fuels “will be feeling let down and betrayed by the government”.
UN climate chief Simon Stiell appeared to send a message to Mr Sunak. “Is turning away from climate action in 2023 really leadership?” Nigel Topping, the UN’s climate change champion for the UK at Cop26, said the weakening of commitments would “send all the wrong signals to industry and push investment and jobs overseas”.
The PM also pushed back the ban on boilers relying on heating oil in off-grid homes from 2026 to 2035, and weakened phasing out of gas boilers from 2035 so that households struggling to switch to heat pumps will not have to make the switch through exemptions.
Mr Sunak also said he would not guide against eating meat or impose new taxes on flying, and said he had blocked a “government diktat to sort your rubbish into seven different bins”.
The PM said he was still committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but claimed previous governments, both Tory and Labour, had been dishonest. “No-one in Westminster politics has yet had the courage to look people in the eye and explain what’s really involved. That’s wrong, and it changes now.”
Labour accused Mr Sunak of “weak leadership” and presiding over a “total farce”. Shadow environment Steve Reed said Labour would keep the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030. “That’s what businesses have been investing for,” he told Sky News. But he would not commit to reversing the changes to phasing out gas boilers.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said Mr Sunak was “putting the UK at the back of the queue”, while Plaid Cymru leader Liz Saville Roberts said it was a “shameful betrayal of future generations”.
The decision to row back on commitments to improve the energy efficiency of homes was branded “hugely disappointing” by National Housing Federation, saying it could lead to people facing higher bills “for years to come”.
Among the signatories to an angry letter signed by 250 firms and campaign groups, organised by think tank E3G, were Chris Norbury, chief executive of energy giant E.ON, Peter Jelkeby, boss of IKEA UK and Ireland, and National Trust director-general Hilary McGrady.
The U-turn reignited a major rift inside the Tory party. While some moderates are furious, several cabinet ministers, including business secretary Kemi Badenoch and chief whip Simon Hart, turned up to support Mr Sunak at his hastily-convened Downing Street press conference.
Ms Truss welcomed Mr Sunak’s weakening of net zero policies – and urged him to go further to scrap the windfall tax on oil and gas and lift the fracking ban. She claimed it would make the UK “more competitive”.
In other startling remarks, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a staunch Boris ally, called Mr Johnson a “net zero zealot”, telling BBC’s World at One that he “could not be more supportive” of what Mr Sunak was doing.
Earlier home secretary Suella Braverman defended watering down net zero commitments by saying the government will not “save the planet by bankrupting the British people”.
And the New Conservatives group – which includes right-wingers elected since the Brexit referendum – said the watering down of plans was a “common-sense approach” that would appeal to 2019 Tory voters.
In a letter to Mr Sunak, co-chairs Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger said that electric vehicles were only attractive to “better off” people and that “many of those who backed our party in 2019 are not in that situation”.
Meanwhile, Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle reacted furiously to Mr Sunak announcing the major change at a press conference rather than addressing MPs in the Commons – writing to the PM to tell him it was “not the way to do business”.