Carol Vorderman has slammed Rishi Sunak’s latest “new approach” to hitting Net Zero as “lies”.
The Prime Minister has announced that the government doesn’t plan on introducing “heavy-handed measures”, including “taxes on eating meat, new taxes to discourage flying, sorting your rubbish into seven different bins, compulsory car sharing and expensive insulation upgrades”.
Responding to the comments, broadcaster Carol Vorderman tweeted: “Rishi Sunak lies. New flying tax doesn’t exist. Compulsory car sharing doesn’t exist. Mandatory insulation upgrade doesn’t exist.”
She added: “Mind you, a recycling bin each for Dozy, Nasty, Dodgy, Greedy, Shouty and Bully at GE is a grand idea”.
Sunak promised that the government will “still meet our international commitments to hitting Net Zero by 2025” without introducing “heavy-handed measures”.
In a speech from Downing Street, the Prime Minister said on Wednesday he would put back a ban on new fossil fuel cars by five years in a major U-turn among a raft of measures.
And he confirmed that households would “never” be forced to “rip-out their existing boiler and replace it with a heat pump”.
Mr Sunak insisted the UK was already ahead of allies in reducing emissions and could not impose “unacceptable costs” on British families.
He said: “The risk here to those of us who care about reaching Net Zero, as I do, is simple: if we continue down this path we risk losing the consent of the British people.”
The Prime Minister detailed the plans to the public after putting them to Cabinet ministers in a hastily arranged call in response to a leak of his Net Zero plans.
Speaking from his press briefing room in front of a podium with the words “long-term decisions for a brighter future”, he said previous governments – both Tory and Labour – had sought to get to Net Zero “simply by wishing it”.
He continued: “No-one in Westminster politics has yet had the courage to look people in the eye and explain what’s really involved. That’s wrong, and it changes now.
“It cannot be right for Westminster to impose such significant costs on working people, especially those who are already struggling to make ends meet and to interfere so much in people’s way of life without a properly informed national debate.”
The Prime Minister made it clear he is committed to meeting targets to combat climate change, but he will not do it on the backs of struggling families.
Pushing back bans on new boilers and petrol cars puts a clear dividing line between the government and Labour.
Keir Starmer now faces a choice of matching the Tories or explaining to voters why they will have to pay exorbitant prices for electric cars or heat pumps in just seven years’ time.
Polling shows voters wants action to protect the environment but was increasingly unhappy about the timescale.
