The battle inside No 10 about whether the PM should attend an absolutely crucial climate summit in Brazil is ludicrous. He must assert himself – and go
N
o sooner has Keir Starmer reshuffled his cabinet, pronounced on Reform’s racist policies and made his party conference speech, than another key decision comes hurtling towards him. But this one concerns the future of the world. The issue is whether the prime minister attends the UN climate summit in Brazil next month.
You may think this would not require too much thought. Two years ago, Starmer attacked Rishi Sunak for not going to a much less significant climate meeting and said that, were he prime minister, he would definitely attend.
The Cop30 leaders’ summit in the Amazonian city of Belém on 6-7 November is the most important since the historic Paris Cop of 2015. But the latest reports suggest that Starmer’s political aides do not want him to go. They apparently think that Labour’s Reform-minded voters do not care much about the climate crisis and feel he spends too much time abroad. Meanwhile, Starmer’s foreign policy advisers point to Donald Trump’s mendacious attack on climate change science and policy at the UN last week and say it would look terrible for Starmer to stay away.
