Zach Goldsmith says he's 'greatly tempted' to support Labor

Fellow Conservative Zach Goldsmith has slammed Prime Minister Rishi Sunak for his inaction on environmental issues. Credit: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

Conservative colleague Zach Goldsmith said he was «strongly tempted» to support the Labor Party in the next election as he continues to attack his own party for its attitude towards the environment.

< p>An ally of Boris Johnson criticized the Conservative Party for not having a «clear answer» to environmental questions and said he would «support [his] credibility» for Labor if they showed a «real commitment» to protecting nature as part of their net zero policy. < /p>

Speaking on BBC's HARDtalk, Lord Goldsmith said: «The simple truth is that there is no way to zero and no solution to climate change without the involvement of nature and huge efforts to protect and restore the natural world.»

“And at the moment I don’t hear anything like that from the Labor Party. If I do that, if there is real commitment now, the kind of commitment, frankly, that we saw when Boris Johnson was in charge, then I would be strongly tempted to support this party and support it in any way possible. .”

Lord Goldsmith resigned as minister in June, accusing Rishi Sunak of being «simply not interested» in the environment, adding: «This signal, or the lack of it, seeped through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis '.

His resignation came after being asked to apologize for criticizing the privileges committee during its investigation into Partygate, and later said he «shouldn't have made public comments» as government.

«Back» on the promise

He also wrote that the prime minister has «virtually backed down» on a pledge to spend £11.6bn on international climate finance between fiscal years 2021/22 and 2025/26.

On Wednesday, he told the BBC it was «mathematically impossible to achieve that goal» unless the Treasury or the Prime Minister intervene.

«If you look at the spending trajectory to deliver on that promise in the first the year of the next government, it may or may not be this government, it may be the Labor Party, which will have to spend more than 80 percent of all its bilateral aid on climate finance, and this obviously will not happen,” he added.

Last week, Mr. Sunak insisted that he cares about net zero, but that the goals must be achieved «proportionately and pragmatically».

Prime Minister faces pressure from some members of his party to revise their green policies after their surprise victory in Uxbridge in a by-election widely seen as a de facto referendum on Labor's expansion of the Ultra Low Emissions Zone (Ulez).

The result was achieved by both sides. come under scrutiny for their zero net income policy.