A former Conservative minister who resigned in protest at the government’s handling of the climate crisis has revealed he will vote for the Labor Party in the election.
In another blow to Rishi Sunak’s faltering campaign, Chris Skidmore accused the prime minister of “supporting climate deniers” in order to “deliberately politicize” the transition to clean energy.
He said this was perhaps “the greatest tragedy of his [Sunak’s] Prime Minister”, saying this “has cost us not only environmentally, but also economically”.
Skidmore wrote: “For the first time, I cannot vote for a party that has boasted about new oil and gas licenses in its manifesto or that now argues that net zero is a burden rather than a benefit.
“Instead, like many others who know we have no choice, no more time, and need to tackle the climate crisis now, I have decided that the Labor Party is best placed to achieve economic growth and the green industrial revolution.
“Zero carbon is one of your top five priorities and for this reason I will be voting Labor in this election.”
Skidmore, a former energy minister, resigned as a Conservative MP in January over the government’s plans to offer new licenses for oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
The policy followed a dilution of Green promises in light of the Uxbridge by-election.
The Conservatives unexpectedly retained Boris Johnson’s old seat last summer after making their opposition to Sadiq Kahn’s ULEZ expansion central to the campaign.
The move was seen by some as an attempt to make green policies a “wedge issue” for the Labor Party, with Sunak saying he wanted to protect “hard-pressed British families” from “unacceptable costs”.
In his Guardian article, Skidmore attacked “extremist rhetoric that frames net zero policies as an imposition”.
“This false narrative is the product of both ignorance and deliberate misinformation. No one has ever been told to remove their boilers or replace their gasoline cars.”
He said that while previous Conservative governments “understood that change was inevitable and needed to be carefully managed and encouraged…Sunak’s decision to side with climate deniers and deliberately politicize the energy transition is perhaps the greatest tragedy of your government.”
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