Ross Clark
No-one has spent more time opposing Britain’s net zero target than me. I wrote a whole book on it as well as dozens of columns. I have addressed many audiences, on radio, TV and in the flesh. Net zero is a disastrous policy, the most consequential law of modern times, and yet it was nodded through the Commons after a mere 90 minutes of praise – I won’t call it a debate – as a departing Theresa May fought to achieve some kind of legacy. The MPs who failed to debate it had no sense of how it could be achieved nor what it would cost, relying on fantasy figures from the Climate Change Committee, which did not take into account the fact that many of the technologies which would be required to achieve it have yet to be invented. Thankfully, the consensus is over and we now have two political parties who oppose the net zero target.
All this said, I think Kemi Badenoch is wrong to ban Conservatives from standing as MPs unless they agree with her fully on her policy of dumping net zero. That is a position you might expect from an insurgent party like Reform, which is beginning to see its electoral limitations. But the Conservatives have always prospered when they are a broad church. To exclude people who take a different view on an important subject weakens a mainstream party like the Conservatives. It would also appear to exclude every single Tory MP who was in the Commons in 2019 when net zero was nodded through, given that not one of them spoke against it or demanded a vote. I know that Kemi herself now claims she did, but actually she told the Commons that the net zero target would be welcomed by many of her constituents, before making a mild enquiry about the costs.
