'No10 ‘confirmed the meat tax was never government policy.’
The Sun is being brutally mocked after its front page praised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for U-turning on net zero policies and for scrapping a ‘meat tax’ which doesn’t actually exist.
The right-wing Tory supporting paper was full of praise for Sunak after he confirmed yesterday that he was watering down a number of net zero policies, including pushing back the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by five years from 2030 to 2035 as well as announcing plans to significantly weaken the plan to phase out the installation of gas boilers by 2035 and scrapping energy efficiency targets.
While Sunak received much condemnation from environmental activists, opposition MPs as well as from members within his own party, the Sun chose to praise him for his U-turn including for ‘scrapping a meat tax’.
Political editor of Byline Times Adam Bienkov posted on X: “When people talk about the Conservative Party being allowed to play on easy mode, this is what it means. A front page splash praising Rishi Sunak for scrapping a ‘meat tax’ that existed only inside their own head.”
Cabinet minister Alex Chalk told Sky journalist Sophy Ridge that he was unsure who exactly was proposing 7 bins and a meat tax which Rishi Sunak “banned” yesterday when asked about it, while the deputy political editor of the Mirror Mikey Smith stated that No10 ‘confirmed the meat tax was never government policy.’
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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