PM makes ‘screeching U-turn’ on attending COP27 – and all his campaign pledges are under review
Rishi Sunak has reversed his decision to skip the COP27 climate summit in Egypt next week – and all his campaign pledges are now under review.
Bowing to pressure from environmental campaigners and MPs today, the prime minister said he would attend COP27 as there is “no long-term prosperity without action on climate change, there is no energy security without investing in renewables”.
Hours later, his official spokeswoman then said the pledges the PM made during the summer leadership contest are under review as they were made a few months ago, when the context was “somewhat different”.
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Secretaries of state are to be consulted on the specifics of their departments.
There was no endpoint for the review, the spokeswoman said.
The admission from Downing Street is likely to fuel fresh calls for a general election, which opposition parties have been demanding since the collapse of Boris Johnson’s government in July.
Mr Sunak initially said he was not going to head to the COP27 conference in Sharm El-Sheikh due to “other pressing domestic commitments”.
But the PM faced a raft of criticism, with Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accusing him of displaying a “failure of leadership” and Greenpeace UK saying he was not taking climate change “seriously enough”.
Within days, Downing Street changed course, saying the PM’s attendance was “under review”, depending on progress around preparation for the economic statement, set for 17 November.
Mr Sunak announced his attendance the morning after former prime minister Mr Johnson told Sky News he would be going.
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Johnson: ‘I am going to COP27’
More U-turns?
On the potential for further U-turns by reviewing the PM’s campaign pledges, his spokeswoman said: “We are looking at all the campaign pledges and we are looking at whether it is the right time to take them forward.
“We need to take some time to make sure what is deliverable and what is possible, and engaging with stakeholders and with the relevant secretaries of state as well.
“Obviously, those are pledges that were made a few months ago now and the context is somewhat different, obviously, economically.
“We need to look again.”
Mr Sunak has already dropped his plan to fine patients £10 for missing GP appointments.
Downing Street said the PM had listened to GPs and NHS leaders “and agreed now is not the time to take this policy forward”.
This morning, Transport Secretary Mark Harper also cast doubt on the high-speed rail link connecting Manchester and Leeds, saying the government is looking at “all the options” ahead of expected spending cuts in the autumn statement later this month.
‘Embarrassing misstep on the world stage’
Opposition parties were quick to mock the “screeching U-turn” over COP27 and claimed the PM is only going because he has been “shamed” into doing so.
Sir Keir has accused Mr Sunak of acting “in the name of political management” rather than the national interest, adding: “Caving in to criticism is not leadership.”
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate secretary, said: “The prime minister has been shamed into going to COP27 by the torrent of disbelief that he would fail to turn up.
“He is going to avoid embarrassment, not to provide leadership.”
The Liberal Democrat’s climate change spokeswoman, Wera Hobhouse, claimed the environment is “simply not a priority” for Mr Sunak’s new government and that he is “only going after being embarrassed by Boris Johnson’s attendance”.
And Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s only MP, said: “Glad to see Sunak’s screeching U-turn on COP27, but what an embarrassing misstep on the world stage.
“Let this be a lesson to him – climate leadership matters.
“Now he urgently needs to increase UK ambition on emission reduction targets & pay what we owe to global climate funds.”
On Friday, and in the face of growing pressure, Mr Sunak defended his decision not to go to COP27, saying he wanted to focus on the UK’s “depressing” economic challenges.
A No 10 source told Sky News Mr Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt have made “good progress” on the autumn statement after working on it over the weekend and this week.
The summit will run from 6-18 November, but the key day for world leaders is Monday, when high-level talks are scheduled, and US President Joe Biden is expected to attend.
Conservative MP Alok Sharma, the president of COP26, said he is “delighted” by the news, after previously saying he was “disappointed” the PM had decided not to go.
Chris Skidmore, who is chairing the government’s review into Net Zero, tweeted: “Extremely good news Rishi Sunak will continue to champion the UK’s climate leadership and COP26 legacy with Alok Sharma.
“Looking forward to also attending COP27 to highlight how the Net Zero Review is an opportunity to better deliver greater prosperity and economic growth.”
The UK chaired the previous climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow last year.
World leaders made a series of climate pledges, culminating in an agreement to strengthen emissions-cutting targets for 2030 by the end of next year.
Ending and reversing deforestation, cutting methane emissions and the journey to net zero were all agreed to at the crucial Glasgow climate summit last year which lasted for two weeks.
New pictures show the moment of impact as an Israeli missile hit a Beirut apartment block and exploded.
The block was one of five buildings destroyed by airstrikes on Friday alone.
Israel launched airstrikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut in a fourth consecutive day of intense attacks.
There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press photographer captured a sequence of images showing an Israeli bomb approaching and hitting a multi-storey apartment building in Beirut’s Tayouneh area.
Richard Weir, a senior crisis, conflict and arms researcher at Human Rights Watch, reviewed the close-up photos to determine what type of weapon was used.
“The bomb and components visible in the photographs, including the strake, wire harness cover, and tail fin section, are consistent with a Mk-84 series 2,000-pound class general purpose bomb equipped with Boeing’s joint directed attack munition tail kit,” he told AP.
Pics: AP
Smoke covers a building that collapses following the strike. Pic: AP
Deadly strikes as bombardment stepped up
Israel stepped up its bombardment this week – an escalation that has coincided with signs of movement in US-led diplomacy towards a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said its fighter jets attacked munitions warehouses, a headquarters and other Hezbollah infrastructure. It issued a warning on social media identifying buildings ahead of the strikes.
Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike killed five members of the same family in a home in Ain Qana in the southern province of Nabatiyeh, Lebanon’s state media said.
The report said a mother, father and their three children were killed but didn’t provide their ages.
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Three other Israeli strikes killed six people and wounded 32 in different parts of Tyre province on Friday, also in south Lebanon, the report said.
Video footage also showed a building being struck and turning into a cloud of rubble and debris that billowed into Horsh Beirut, the city’s main park.
Residents check the site of the airstrike in Tayouneh, Beirut. Pic: AP
More than 3,200 people have been killed in Lebanon during 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah – most of them since mid-September.
About 27% of those killed were women and children, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Israel dramatically escalated its bombardment of Lebanon from September, vowing to cripple Hezbollah and end its barrages in Israel.
Friday’s strikes come as Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister has asked Iran to help secure a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
The prime minister appeared to urge Ali Larijani, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to convince the militant group to agree to a deal that could require it to pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border.
Iran is a main backer of Hezbollah and for decades has been funding and arming the Lebanese militant group.
On Thursday, Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of its security cabinet, said that prospects for a ceasefire with Lebanon were the most promising since the conflict began.
The Washington Post reported Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was rushing to advance a Lebanon ceasefire to deliver an early foreign policy win to his ally, US President-elect Donald Trump.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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