Rishi Sunak insists he is ‘absolutely not slowing down’ climate efforts

The Prime Minister said he was confident targets would still be met a day after weakening a string of green pledges.

Rishi Sunak has insisted he is “absolutely not slowing down” efforts to combat climate change a day after weakening a host of pledges designed to help the UK reach net zero in a shift that drew widespread criticism.

The Prime Minister said he was confident climate targets would still be met when asked if he was prepared for legal challenges against his plans.

He repeated his denial that his move was about playing politics, despite being widely interpreted as an attempt to draw a clear dividing line between his Conservative Party and Labour ahead of a likely general election next year.

Speaking a day after his speech in Downing Street, in which he pushed back the ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years and watered down the plan to phase out gas boilers by 2035, Mr Sunak continued to vigorously defend his policy overhaul.

He was challenged over several measures he claimed he was scrapping, including the possibility of taxes on meat and compulsory car sharing, after his former environment minister Lord Goldsmith accused him of “pretending to halt frightening proposals that simply do not exist”.

The Prime Minister told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I reject that entirely.”

“These are all things that have been raised by very credible people about ways to meet our net zero obligations,” he said, citing the Committee on Climate Change as the source of the proposals, although it appears never to have recommended a so-called “meat tax”.

He also shrugged off suggestions he was not listening to the independent Climate Change Committee and emulating his predecessor Liz Truss by ignoring expert advice he did not want to hear.

“I’m very happy to get opinions and advice from everybody and everyone’s entitled to their view,” Mr Sunak said.

“For those who disagree with me, and there are plenty of people as we can see over the last day or two, lots of people who disagree with me, the questions for them, they should explain to the country why they think it’s right that ordinary families up and down the country should have to fork out five, ten, £15,000 to make the transition earlier than is necessary.”

Mr Sunak, who is likely to face further questions about the repositioning during a visit in south-east England later on Thursday morning, also scrapped the requirement of energy efficiency upgrades to homes.

Pressed on the prospect of legal challenges over his plans, the Conservative Party leader said he had “absolute confidence and belief” the UK will hit its targets, having “consistently over-delivered in all our previous carbon budget”.

“We are absolutely not slowing down efforts to combat climate change. I am very proud of our country’s leadership. We have decarbonised faster than any other major economy in the G7, not a fact you hear reported that often.”

He brushed off a backlash from the car industry, after Ford warned that delaying the ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles would “undermine” its needs for “ambition, commitment, and consistency” from the Government.

He said: “They made those comments before I’d actually stood up and made a speech based on speculation and since then what you’ve had are multiple other car manufacturers, including Toyota last night, welcome what I said.”

Mr Sunak insisted the changes were not about politics, saying he wanted to “change the direction of our country” meaning he had to be “willing to change politics”.

Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow energy security secretary, said he relished the opportunity to go “toe-to-toe” with the Tories on net zero during the election campaign.

Mr Sunak’s announcements created immediate daylight between the red and the blue sides, with Sir Keir Starmer’s outfit – which is well ahead of Mr Sunak’s party in opinion polls – saying it remained committed to the phase out of new internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030.

Labour said the watering down of green pledges would cost the public more in the long term and accused the Prime Minister of “selling out” the opportunity for a jobs boom on the back of striving for net zero – a criticism echoed by senior Tories, including Boris Johnson.