Days after quitting as a Conservative MP over Rishi Sunak’s climate stance, Chris Skidmore, UK’s former minister has said that Labour must stick to its £28bn climate spending plans.
Skidmore who was tasked with writing a review of the government’s net zero plans, said he supported the pledge despite being a “fiscal conservative”.
The Conservatives have been increasing their attacks on Labour over the proposal but Skidmore, who quit the party last week, said: “That investment is needed. It will end up having to be invested. The longer we wait, this investment for net zero is going to cost far more than £28bn.”
Recall that Labour promised in 2021 to invest £28bn a year in green projects until 2030 if it came to power. But last year the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, said it would instead be a target to work towards in the second half of a first parliament, should the party win the next general election.
The former MP for Kingswood, where there will be a byelection in February, said: “Labour has set out a real mission on climate. I’m probably very closely aligned with them on that,” adding that this showed “party politics means that not everyone fits into that sort of neat box”.
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Despite believing in generally lower state spending, Skidmore said investment in technology, and net zero, was important.
He said: “We are living in remarkable revolutionary times, where new technologies are emerging. And the countries that move first are the ones that get that first-mover advantage.
“There is no free ride here. In the past, when we failed to invest in offshore wind, all the jobs or the industries went abroad. We failed to capitalise on that initial first lead. We failed to capitalise on nuclear in the past as well again; it all went to France. The jobs went elsewhere. I can see, as a historian, history repeating itself.”
Since his shock resignation last Friday over the government’s upcoming oil and gas licensing bill, Skidmore has faced attacks from his former colleagues, some of whom have said he is selfish for causing a byelection so close to a general election. He said he has felt “up and down” since quitting, and “sorry that he’s upset people”.
For the first time since 1996, when he joined the Conservative party, Skidmore is no longer a Tory and it has led to an identity crisis.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
