North-east Tory Maurice Golden is rebelling against the Tory leadership in an embarrassing swipe at the prime minister’s multiple U-turns on environmental pledges.
Mr Golden criticised Rishi Sunak for changing UK Government policy on “net zero” commitments, including delaying a ban on new petrol car sales from 2030 to 2035.
The MSP said the “regressive” U-turn would “polarise communities” and pit people who believe in tackling climate change against those who do not.
He spoke out as party colleagues offered formal support for the UK Tories’ new position before a vote at the Scottish Parliament.
Mr Golden said his party should have focused on what he said are Scottish Government failures to meet climate targets.
He said: “It very simple in my view. Let’s not forget we’re a devolved parliament. We deal with devolved issues.”
Discussing a vote in Holyrood on Tuesday, he questioned the logic of bringing the prime minister’s interventions into the debate.
“Why are we debating two interventions into the net zero debate from the Prime Minister that will not have any or, worst case scenario, will have a minor impact on meeting our climate change targets? I would have focused it on those.
MSP ‘sad’ to vote against his party
“The SNP don’t have a policy to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars. Their policy is to phase out the need for it. So it doesn’t actually change anything.”
Mr Golden says he is “sad” to break from his party in a vote for the first time.
“There was a way in which the motion could have been constructed, but that was not taken,” he added.
What did Rishi Sunak say?
Speaking in Downing Street on September 20, Mr Sunak said previous governments tried to reach “net zero” climate impact “simply by wishing it”.
He claimed that sticking with existing climate pledges would “risk losing the consent of the British people”.
As well as changing targets for cars, he weakened plans to strip out polluting gas and oil boilers and scrapped policies forcing landlords to upgrade the energy efficiency of homes.
Mr Sunak insisted the UK was already ahead of allies in reducing emissions and could not impose “unacceptable costs” on British families.
Listen to our full interview with Maurice Golden on climate targets and his views on the leadership in The Stooshie podcast, coming on Wednesday afternoon.
Catch up on all our previous Stooshie politics podcast episodes here.
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