Kemi Badenoch criticised for vowing to purge former Tory MPs and prospective candidates who support net zero policies

Kemi Badenoch has been criticised for saying that she has purged all former Tory MPs who support net zero emissions targets from standing again. 

In her latest anti-climate policy, Badenoch has said she is vetting 2,000 prospective candidates including former Conservative MPs over the summer.

She said that if she finds they believe in net zero targets they won’t be able to stand as Tory candidates in the next general election. 

“If someone still believes in net zero targets that make energy more expensive and are destroying industry, they are not coming back,” she told the Telegraph.

She added: “They should never have been candidates before”. 

Badenoch also said she will purge parliamentary candidates who support the UK remaining a member of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Badenoch supported Theresa May’s commitment to the UK achieving net zero by 2050 when the Conservatives were in power.

However, in October 2025, she said that achieving net zero by 2050 was “impossible” and that under her leadership, the Conservatives would ditch the target.

Investigative newspaper Desmog found that Badenoch’s announcement came after her party accepted thousands in donations from oil and gas investors and climate deniers.

In January 2025, the Conservative Party accepted a £50,000 donation from Neil Record, the chair of Net Zero Watch, the campaign arm of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a climate science denial group.

In February last year, the Tories accepted another donation of £14,350 from Record.

GWPF has also received more than half a million in donations from the Koch brothers, who own companies that trade oil and gas.

In a post on X, Net Zero Watch shared Badenoch’s announcement and a link to the Telegraph article. 

The account also shared other posts on X calling the move “good news” and “superb news”. 

In another post, Net Zero Watch wrote: “The first duty of any government is to protect the national interest. We all care about the environment, but a statutory Net Zero target fails that test.”

The group, which is linked to  also claimed: “It weakens Britain’s economy, competitiveness and resilience while having a negligible impact on global emissions.”

Mothin Ali, deputy leader of the Green Party, reacted to Badenoch’s announcement, stating “Perhaps the extreme heat is getting to Kemi Badenoch and effecting her judgement. There seems to be a direct correlation between increasing evidence of climate breakdown and her growing belligerent opposition to climate action.

“This is deeply irresponsible – scientifically ignorant and economically illiterate. Whatever brakes the Conservatives attempt to apply to the green economy it is powering ahead, growing around three times faster than the rest of the UK economy and worth more than £100bn a year.”

Zak Coleman, campaigner at Green New Deal Rising, said: “The scorching heatwaves of the last few weeks are yet more evidence of the rapidly advancing climate emergency.”

He said it is “completely absurd and dangerous” to deny that urgent action is needed to cut emissions and transition to a green economy. 

“Politicians like Kemi Badenoch have made crystal clear that they have chosen to protect fossil fuel company profits over the British people, who will be battered by life-threatening extreme weather, huge increases in food prices and mass global instability if something is not done to address accelerating climate breakdown,” Coleman added.

“More than that, these politicians ignore the vast economic opportunity of the green transition: new, green jobs for struggling young people, restoring British nature, clean, reliable energy and a stable, secure future.”

“This is just more irresponsible madness from an increasingly irrelevant political party who have shown us again and again they are not on ordinary people’s side.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward