Kemi Badenoch has been hit by a backlash from Tory grandees after vowing to scrap a major green law if she wins power.
On the eve of her first party conference as leader, she faced criticism from her predecessor Baroness May and two former Conservative ministers for her proposal to put cheap energy above environmental targets.
Mrs Badenoch had insisted that she was not questioning climate change, but believes that the targets and regulations imposed by Labour's Climate Change Act 2008 are making power more expensive and damaging industry.
The Act imposed legally binding caps on the total amount of greenhouse gases the UK can emit.
However, former premier Lady May, in a rare attack on the leader, said: 'I am deeply disappointed by this retrograde step which upends 17 years of consensus between our main political parties and the scientific community.'
