Don’t falter on green pledges, Boris Johnson urges Rishi Sunak

Boris Johnson has urged Rishi Sunak not to “falter” on the UK’s climate pledges, after it was revealed he is set to weaken several green policies.

The prime minister has brought forward a speech on his net zero strategy, after plans to soften key commitments were leaked to the BBC.

He has argued the policy shift will ensure climate goals are met in “more proportionate way”.

But his predecessor as PM warned the UK could not afford “lose our ambition”.

Mr Sunak’s plans, set to be revealed in a speech at 16.30 BST, could include delaying a ban on the sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035.

The 2030 ban is among several green commitments made by Mr Johnson during his premiership, which ended last year following a revolt from Tory MPs over a string of scandals.

If Mr Sunak presses ahead with the plan would represent a significant shift in the Conservative Party’s approach to net zero policy, and open up a dividing line with Labour.

Other Johnson-era policies Mr Sunak is considering weakening include reductions in the use of gas boilers – with only 80% to be phased out by 2035.

He is also considering a delay to the ban on off-grid boilers from 2026 to 2035, with an aim of 80% being phased out by that date, and ruling out new energy efficiency regulations on homes for landlords and homeowners.

In a statement ahead of Mr Sunak’s speech, Mr Johnson said businesses that had invested in the “green Industrial Revolution” needed certainty on the UK’s plans to cut climate emissions.

Green technologies, he said, were set to generate “huge numbers of high quality jobs” and improve the economy.

He also said they would help with “levelling up” – the project to rebalance the UK’s economy away from London that the former PM had made a flagship aim for his government.

“Business and industry – such as motor manufacturing – are rightly making vast investments in these new technologies,” he added.

“It is those investments that will produce a low carbon future – at lower costs for British families.

“It is crucial that we give those businesses confidence that government is still committed to Net Zero and can see the way ahead. We cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country.”

However, in a statement after the news of his speech leaked on Tuesday, Mr Sunak said “for too many years politicians in governments of all stripes have not been honest about costs and trade-offs.”

“Instead they have taken the easy way out, saying we can have it all,” he added.

“This realism doesn’t mean losing our ambition or abandoning our commitments,” he said, adding that the government was still committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The New Conservatives group – made up of recently elected MPs – have praised Mr Sunak for taking a “common sense” approach but one of Mr Johnson’s former ministers, Tory MP Sir Simon Clarke, said the possible move felt “like an unnecessary misstep and a misreading of where the British people are on the issue”.

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has criticised the prime minister for making his speech – which had been planned for later this week – while the Commons is in recess.

The chamber paused debates on Tuesday ahead of party conferences in the coming weeks, and is not set to reconvene until 16 October.

His spokeswoman said: “This is not the way to do business. Ministers are answerable to MPs – we do not have a presidential system here.”