Environmental groups who claim to represent 20 million people have warned that they will mobilise their members if UK ministers water down climate commitments.
Groups including the RSPB, National Trust and the RSPCA have reportedly written to the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who has indicated his willingness to back away from green policies should the Conservatives stand to benefit from it electorally.
“We will not stand by whilst politicians use the environment as a political football. It is courage and leadership that we need now,” they said. “In the past, we have mobilised many of our members collectively with extraordinary results, and our resolve to stand firm now against any and all attacks on this critical policy agenda remains absolute.”
According to reports, their warning comes after the Conservative party narrowly succeeded in holding on to the safe Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat in the byelection triggered by the former prime minister Boris Johnson’s departure from the Commons.
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The constituency’s Conservative candidate, Steve Tuckwell, was said to have centred his campaign on opposition to the planned expansion of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez), which is designed to reduce vehicle pollution in the capital, but which has also become a rallying point for opponents of the Labour London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
The result led some to suggest that there was political capital to be made for Tories concerned about the party’s disastrous polling in exploiting so-called local wedge issues.
Despite polls showing broad public support for action on the environment, the perception that successfully mobilising anti-Ulez campaigners in Uxbridge to vote for the Tories – or, at least, to not vote for their opponents – has led some to identify the environment as one such wedge issue.
Sunak is said to have signalled that the government’s approach to its 2050 net zero commitment will be malleable under his leadership, saying he will follow a “proportionate and pragmatic” course that “doesn’t unnecessarily give people more hassle and more costs in their lives”.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
