Salford MP Rebecca Long Bailey with her leader Jeremy Corbyn at the D-Day commemorations stood in at Prime Minister’s Question Time this lunchtime in the Commons.
The Shadow Business Secretary faced Theresa May’s Deputy David Lidington and after paying tribute to the extraordinary” bravery of those who fought fascism and giving a nod to women protesting over pensions outside Parliament today, she concentrated on the issue of climate change
“With a President who initiated the US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, opened up record amounts of land for oil and gas drilling, and called climate change a hoax. Can the Right Honourable Gentleman confirm whether yesterday the PM made any attempt to convince him that climate change is indeed real.”
The Deputy PM said that she did adding:
“We are very proud of this country’s commitment to the international agreements to reduce global carbon emissions, and we have a better track record in reducing those emissions than any other G7 member state.
Long Bailey continued to press asking:
“what authority does this government actually have on this issue. Three current cabinet ministers have denied the scientific consensus on climate change, and several of those standing in the Tory leadership contest have close links with organisations and individuals promoting climate denial. Mr Speaker, it does not bode well. Figures released in April, show that the UK is set to miss its own climate budgets by an ever-widening margin. Will the Rt Hon gentleman like to explain why the government is off-track to meeting its own targets.”
adding that the government was trying to fiddle its climate statistics, quoting from a report in the FT before pointing out that the Parliament declared a “climate emergency” – but ministers are not taking the problem seriously.
