Saturday, July 01, 2023
And now open warfare
The behind-the-scenes civil war within the Tory Party burst out into the open yesterday with the resignation of Lord Goldsmith from the government.
The Independent reports that the situation became even more fractious as Zac Goldsmith hit out at the “misleading” No 10 briefing over his scathing resignation, insisting that Rishi Sunak was “wrong” to claim he had refused to apologise over his Partygate comments.
The paper says that the outgoing environment minister claimed he was “happy to apologise” for remarks labelled “disturbing” by the privileges committee in their report alleging “interference” from 10 Tories during their investigation which found that Boris Johnson repeatedly lied to parliament:
As he sought to get back on the front foot at a No 10 briefing outlining his plans for NHS reforms, Mr Sunak insisted the Tory peer had resigned after taking a “different course” when asked to apologise for his “incompatible” remarks – despite No 10 insisting just hours earlier that he had the PM’s confidence.
But Lord Goldsmith opened up a new front of criticism for Mr Sunak as he countered the PM’s claims of his refusal to apologise on Friday, insisting the Sunak government’s “lethargy” on climate meant his resignation had been a “long time coming”.
As the Guardian reports, the Conservative peer and former MP published a long resignation letter detailing his disappointment with the prime minister for causing “paralysis” on the environment within Whitehall and choosing to attend the party of a media baron rather than an international environmental forum:
In his letter stepping down from the Foreign Office, where his portfolio was overseas territories, Commonwealth, environment, energy and climate, Goldsmith said it had been a privilege to work as an environment minister, particularly under Johnson.
He said he had been horrified by the Sunak government’s “abandonment” of policies around animal welfare, and that its efforts on environmental issues at home had “simply ground to a standstill”.
Addressing Sunak directly, the Tory peer said: “Prime minister, having been able to get so much done previously, I have struggled even to hold the line in recent months. The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.”
He added: “This government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.”
Goldsmith claimed the UK had “visibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature”. He wrote: “Too often we are simply absent from key international fora. Only last week you seemingly chose to attend the party of a media baron rather than attend a critically important environment summit in Paris that ordinarily the UK would have co-led.”
It is understood Goldsmith had been feeling uneasy about Sunak’s commitment to the environment since the beginning of his premiership, when the prime minister had to be cajoled into attending Cop27.
The Conservative peer told friends at the time that he was considering resigning from a government that had seemingly deprioritised the environment and the natural world, a view that was cemented by a tussle over nature-based payments for farmers.
However, he planned to stay in post for as long as it took to get the international forest agreement, agreed at Cop26, over the line. The deal between more than 100 leaders to save the world’s forests, partly made possible with funding from the UK, was seen as one of the great successes of the climate summit.
This month the peer made up his mind to resign when Sunak’s government scrapped the kept animals bill after pressure from the hunting lobby, which was concerned that hunting hounds would be affected by its measures. The legislation would have cracked down on puppy farming as well as banning keeping primates as pets and banning live exports of farm animals. Friends say Goldsmith was “sickened” by the decision and wrote to Sunak begging him to reconsider, but that letter was ignored.
After learning that international development funding to protect forests would not be honoured by Sunak, allies of Goldsmith say he made the final decision to quit.
Legitimate criticism irrespective of the context.
The Independent reports that the situation became even more fractious as Zac Goldsmith hit out at the “misleading” No 10 briefing over his scathing resignation, insisting that Rishi Sunak was “wrong” to claim he had refused to apologise over his Partygate comments.
The paper says that the outgoing environment minister claimed he was “happy to apologise” for remarks labelled “disturbing” by the privileges committee in their report alleging “interference” from 10 Tories during their investigation which found that Boris Johnson repeatedly lied to parliament:
As he sought to get back on the front foot at a No 10 briefing outlining his plans for NHS reforms, Mr Sunak insisted the Tory peer had resigned after taking a “different course” when asked to apologise for his “incompatible” remarks – despite No 10 insisting just hours earlier that he had the PM’s confidence.
But Lord Goldsmith opened up a new front of criticism for Mr Sunak as he countered the PM’s claims of his refusal to apologise on Friday, insisting the Sunak government’s “lethargy” on climate meant his resignation had been a “long time coming”.
As the Guardian reports, the Conservative peer and former MP published a long resignation letter detailing his disappointment with the prime minister for causing “paralysis” on the environment within Whitehall and choosing to attend the party of a media baron rather than an international environmental forum:
In his letter stepping down from the Foreign Office, where his portfolio was overseas territories, Commonwealth, environment, energy and climate, Goldsmith said it had been a privilege to work as an environment minister, particularly under Johnson.
He said he had been horrified by the Sunak government’s “abandonment” of policies around animal welfare, and that its efforts on environmental issues at home had “simply ground to a standstill”.
Addressing Sunak directly, the Tory peer said: “Prime minister, having been able to get so much done previously, I have struggled even to hold the line in recent months. The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested. That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.”
He added: “This government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.”
Goldsmith claimed the UK had “visibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature”. He wrote: “Too often we are simply absent from key international fora. Only last week you seemingly chose to attend the party of a media baron rather than attend a critically important environment summit in Paris that ordinarily the UK would have co-led.”
It is understood Goldsmith had been feeling uneasy about Sunak’s commitment to the environment since the beginning of his premiership, when the prime minister had to be cajoled into attending Cop27.
The Conservative peer told friends at the time that he was considering resigning from a government that had seemingly deprioritised the environment and the natural world, a view that was cemented by a tussle over nature-based payments for farmers.
However, he planned to stay in post for as long as it took to get the international forest agreement, agreed at Cop26, over the line. The deal between more than 100 leaders to save the world’s forests, partly made possible with funding from the UK, was seen as one of the great successes of the climate summit.
This month the peer made up his mind to resign when Sunak’s government scrapped the kept animals bill after pressure from the hunting lobby, which was concerned that hunting hounds would be affected by its measures. The legislation would have cracked down on puppy farming as well as banning keeping primates as pets and banning live exports of farm animals. Friends say Goldsmith was “sickened” by the decision and wrote to Sunak begging him to reconsider, but that letter was ignored.
After learning that international development funding to protect forests would not be honoured by Sunak, allies of Goldsmith say he made the final decision to quit.
Legitimate criticism irrespective of the context.
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Zac Goldsmith is inconsistent. He supports former PM Johnson, who had promised to "lie down in front of the bulldozers". But how strident was Goldsmith when Johnson went missing during a crucial vote on Heathrow expansion?
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