Back to the Foreign Secretary, who seems unable to keep himself out of the headlines these days. It transpires that as well as being rather gaffe-prone on the subject of international relations – having described Donald Trump in the past as a ‘neo-Nazi sympathising sociopath’ – David Lammy has today taken it upon himself to wax lyrical about the dangers of the climate crisis. In fact, the Foreign Secretary even appeared to imply that climate change is a more urgent threat than Vladimir Putin or, er, terrorism. Quite the comparisons to choose…
Speaking in Kew Gardens about the need to tie climate action closer to foreign policy, Lammy warned his audience that ‘there will be no global stability without climate stability’, adding: ‘The threat may not feel as urgent as a terrorist or an imperialist autocrat. But it is more fundamental. It is systemic. Pervasive. And accelerating towards us.’ Yikes.
It’s quite a change from the stance taken by Rishi Sunak’s Tory government – and Lammy was at pains to point this out. Slamming Sunak’s move to cut back on green policies (after the former PM’s announcement last year that he was delaying the phase out of new petrol cars), the Foreign Secretary launched into an attack on his opposition, fuming:
[The Tories] became climate dinosaurs – crashing offshore wind, blocking onshore wind, moving the goalposts on electric vehicle targets, doubling down on oil and gas, leaving British wildlife in crisis, our biodiversity declining at an unprecedented rate, our precious national parks in decline, our rivers, lakes and seas awash with toxic sewage. Blind to the opportunities of the energy transition, a fossil fuel government in a renewable age.
And who says he doesn’t have a way with words?
Not that the Conservatives are particularly shaken by Lammy’s earlier tirade. Kemi Badenoch certainly wasn’t pulling any punches when asked for comment on the Foreign Secretary’s speech today. ‘He is not a serious man by any stretch of the imagination,’ the Tory leadership candidate announced. Ouch…
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