A former Cabinet minister has stated he will not vote for a “smoke and mirrors” invoice to permit extra oil and fuel drilling within the North Sea in a livid assault on Rishi Sunak.
Sir Alok Sharma stated the Government was “not being serious” about tackling the local weather disaster and accused ministers of ditching commitments made on the COP28 summit only some weeks in the past. The former Business Secretary and COP26 President stated he wouldn’t vote for the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill within the Commons right this moment.
It will come as contemporary headache for Mr Sunak after one other ex-minister Chris Skidmore stated he was quitting over the invoice, triggering one other nightmare by-election. Sir Alok informed BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I will not be voting for this bill and as it’s currently drafted, this bill is a total distraction. It is actually a smoke and mirrors bill which frankly changes nothing.
“The North Sea Transition Authority, which is the physique that truly grants oil and fuel licences, can already grant licences once they suppose it’s a necessity and the Energy Department has made fairly clear that with respect of this invoice, that won’t change. What this invoice does do is reinforce that unlucky notion concerning the UK rowing again from local weather motion.
“We saw this last autumn with the chopping and changing of some policies, and actually not being serious about meeting our international commitments.” The UK signed as much as transitioning away from utilizing fossil fuels on the COP28 summit in December however this invoice is “the opposite of what we agreed internationally”, Mr Sharma stated.
Mr Skidmore, a former web zero tsar, introduced he was quitting on Friday over the laws, which he stated “clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas”. In a livid resignation assertion, he stated the “future will judge harshly” anybody who helps the invoice”.
“I can… no longer condone nor continue to support a Government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm,” he wrote. “To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am therefore resigning my party whip and instead intend to be free from any party-political allegiance.”
He added: “I can no longer stand by. The climate crisis that we face is too important to politicise or to ignore.” His resignation is expected to be confirmed today as the Commons returns from the Christmas recess. It will mean a by-election in his seat of Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, where he has a 11,220 majority.