Rishi Sunak won't enjoy reading this resignation letter
Zac Goldsmith has resigned as a foreign minister this morning. The Tory peer issued a damning letter tendering his resignation in which he accused the government of ‘apathy’ on the climate crisis.
Goldsmith’s ministerial brief covered international environmental issues.
Goldsmith’s letter laid into prime minister Rishi Sunak’s record on environmental issues, saying he was ‘horrified’ by the direction of the government. He went on to accuse the government of having ‘abandoned’ commitments on environmental issues, saying they have ‘ground to a standstill’.
Goldsmith wrote: “The UK has visibly stepped of the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature.” He added a strong criticism of Sunak himself, saying: “Only last week you seemingly chose to attend the party of a media baron rather than attend a critically important environment summit in Paris that only the UK could have co-led.”
In the most withering criticism of Sunak, Goldsmith wrote: “The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our Prime Minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.”
Goldsmith’s resignation comes after the government’s own advisors – the Climate Change Committee – issued a damning verdict on its performance on the climate crisis.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
Image credit: UK Parliament – Creative Commons
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