Tory backlash as Sunak suggests he will delay UK’s switch to electric cars by five years
Rishi Sunak looks set to weaken key climate pledges in a move that has drawn heavy criticism from Tory MPs and environmental groups.
The prime minister said he remains committed to the net zero target by 2050 but will achieve it “in a better, more proportionate way”.
It comes after a BBC report said as part of a major policy shift, the PM could weaken the plan to phase out gas boilers from 2035 and delay the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars – currently due in 2030 – by five years.
The report – which Sky News understands to be correct – has sparked anger among Tory MPs, with one saying they are “seriously considering” a no confidence letter.
Politics latest: What is 2030 petrol car ban – and could it be postponed?
However, in a statement on Tuesday night, Mr Sunak said: “No leak will stop me beginning the process of telling the country how and why we need to change.
“As a first step, I’ll be giving a speech this week to set out an important long-term decision we need to make so our country becomes the place I know we all want it to be for our children.”
Giving a flavour of what is to come, the prime minister added: “I know people are frustrated with politics and want real change.
“Our political system rewards short-term decision-making that is holding our country back.
“For too many years politicians in governments of all stripes have not been honest about costs and trade offs. Instead they have taken the easy way out, saying we can have it all.”
He insisted that realism “doesn’t mean losing our ambition or abandoning our commitments – far from it”.
He said: “I am proud that Britain is leading the world on climate change. We are committed to net zero by 2050 and the agreements we have made internationally – but doing so in a better, more proportionate way.
“Our politics must again put the long-term interests of our country before the short-term political needs of the moment.”
What will the PM’s net zero review look like?
Ever since the surprise Tory Uxbridge by-election victory, attributed to the party’s opposition to the ULEZ congestion charge scheme, Rishi Sunak has been reviewing the government’s net zero commitments.
The PM has personally long been cautious about the costs that tackling climate change will impose if done too hastily, and is, it appears, keen to seize the opportunity to do something he believes will go down well with parts of the Tory voter base after a rocky six weeks.
What will that look like?
We already know the headline conclusion of that review, since new Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho spelled them out in an article in The Sun at the weekend.
She made clear – as No 10 does tonight – that the party will remain committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
However, this was coupled with a new promise that no “hard-working families [would be] forced to change their lives or have extra financial burdens put on them,” as she puts it.
That rang immediate alarm bells amongst environmental groups on Sunday.
Now we are about to find out how that complicated circle is squared – and the questions that change in approach will raise.
Two big areas have to change in order for Britain to meet its net zero obligation. One is in the home – ending the dependence on gas boilers to heat the majority of British homes while making them more energy efficient; the other is moving away from petrol and diesel cars towards electricity powered vehicle
The targets designed to drive both those changes look as if they are about to be softened.
Analysis: Targets designed to drive net zero set to be softened
Mr Sunak has previously hinted he is prepared to water down climate policies that add extra costs and “hassle” to households.
It came after the Tories’ unexpected victory at the Uxbridge by-election, which was credited to their opposition to the ULEZ congestion zone charge scheme.
Since then some Tory MPs have argued the party should drop green policies that could impose costs on consumers to gain votes at the ballot box.
But others are concerned it will damage the UK’s reputation on climate change.
Tory MPs are particularly angry about the reported change to the car policy, with one calling it “anti-business” – given how much the car industry has invested in Electric Vehicles (EV).
They told Sky’s deputy political editor Sam Coates that a push back on the petrol and diesel ban would mean breaking a promise the prime minister made to Conservative MPs privately.
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How much will net zero cost?
Separately, one minister said they would be “staggered” if the car ban is delayed because of the signals it sends to the industry, telling Sky News: “Every automotive company is investing in EV, we’ve just given Tata all this money to make batteries, it’s bonkers.”
Some senior Tory figures voiced their concern publicly, with former Cop26 president Sir Alok Sharma warning that “for any party to resile from this [climate action] agenda will not help economically or electorally”.
Tory former Cabinet minister Sir Simon Clarke tweeted that “it is in our environmental, economic, moral and (yes) political interests as @Conservatives to make sure we lead on this issue rather than disown it”.
There was also anger from opposition MPs and climate groups.
Labour’s shadow energy secretary Ed Miliband said: “This is a complete farce from a Tory government that literally does not know what they are doing day to day.
“Thirteen years of failed energy policy has led to an energy bills crisis, weakened our energy security, lost jobs, and failed on the climate crisis.”
Friends of the Earth’s head of policy, Mike Childs, said: “Rolling back on key climate commitments as the world is being battered by extreme flooding and wildfires would be morally indefensible.
“It is legally questionable too as the UK has binding greenhouse gas reduction targets that it’s already in danger of missing.”
A former British soldier who escaped from Wandsworth Prison has been found guilty of spying for Iran.
Daniel Khalife, 23, who was a lance corporal in the Royal Signals, used a sling made from trousers worn by inmates working in the kitchen to cling to the underside of a food delivery lorry on 6 September last year.
He was being held in the Category B prison accused of handing secret information, including a list of soldiers – some of whom were serving in the SAS – to Iranian spies.
MI5, the Ministry of Defence and counter-terrorism police launched a nationwide manhunt, fearing Khalife would try to flee to Tehran or get to the Iranian embassy in London.
Woolwich Crown Court heard that while on the run he bought a mobile phone to call his handlers, who used the code name “David Smith”, and sent the message: “I wait.”
Khalife was arrested on 9 September. Pic: Met Police
But Khalife was arrested on the morning of 9 September when he was spotted riding a stolen mountain bike along the canal towpath in Northolt, west London – about 14 miles away from Wandsworth Prison.
He initially pleaded not guilty to an escape charge but changed his plea after describing the break-out to jurors, saying it showed “what a foolish idea it was to have someone of my skillset in prison”.
Khalife, who first contacted an Iranian spy soon after he joined the Army aged 16, claimed he wanted to be a “double agent” and “thought he could be James Bond” but had only passed on fake or useless information.
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From October: Jurors shown CCTV of Khalife after escape
Giving evidence, he described himself as an English “patriot”, adding: “I’m certainly not a terrorist or a traitor.”
But he was found guilty of a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy between 1 May 2019 and 6 January 2022, under the Official Secrets Act.
Khalife, from Kingston, in southwest London, was also found guilty of eliciting personal information about armed forces personnel that was likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism on 2 August 2021.
The charge related to a photo of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers, including some from special forces serving in the Special Air Service (SAS) and Special Boat Service (SBS).
Khalife was found not guilty of perpetrating a bomb hoax at his barracks in January 2023.
Daniel Khalife joined the Army aged 16
‘The ultimate Walter Mitty’
Dominic Murphy, the head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command, said while Khalife’s approach was “amateurish” with elements of “fantasy”, the reality was he provided “highly sensitive” information to the Iranian state.
“He’s the ultimate Walter Mitty character,” he said. “The problem is he’s a Walter Mitty character that was having an extremely significant impact on the real world.”
A Walter Mitty character is someone who is ordinary but has an extraordinary imagination and daydreams about personal triumphs to escape their dull life.
Mr Murphy said the “game” played by Khalife to “fuel his ego” posed “a significant risk to national security” and he had “enjoyed the thrill of the deception throughout”.
Police have disrupted 20 direct plots from the Iranian government, including assignations or immediate threats to life, and the state’s agents “pose a very real threat to national security and to individuals here in the UK”, Mr Murphy said.
Khalife told the jury he contacted an Iranian agent through Facebook because he wanted to endear himself to the UK security services after he was told he couldn’t pass developed vetting to fulfil his dream of working in intelligence because his mother was born in Iran.
A selfie of Daniel Khalife in Mill Hill Park. Pic: Met Police
Khalife collected cash in a dog poo bag. Pic: Met Police
Dead drops
Khalife left material in public locations in exchange for cash in an old-fashioned spy tactic known as the “dead drop” or “dead letter box”.
He first collected £1,500 in a dog poo bag in Mill Hill Park in Barnet, north London, in August 2019 and made a second £1,000 cash pick-up from Kensal Green Cemetery, in North Kensington, in October 2021.
He twice travelled from his barracks, in Staffordshire, to the Iranian embassy in South Kensington, in London, and even flew to Istanbul, where he stayed in the Hilton hotel between 4 and 10 August 2020, and “delivered a package” for Iranian agents, the court heard.
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Sky’s Shamaan Freeman-Powell reports from Woolwich Crown Court
The contact continued while he was deployed to Fort Hood, Texas, where he received training in Falcon, a military communications system.
Khalife repeatedly contacted the British security services himself saying he wanted to be a “double agent”, but MI5 reported him to police, who arrested him.
While on bail, he went AWOL from his base, leaving a device made from three laughing gas canisters bound with sniper tape on his desk.
Khalife left a fake device. Pic: Met Police
He stayed in a stolen Ford Transit van, later found containing a camp bed, around £20,000, and notes saying he wanted to defect to Iran.
Prosecutors said he planned to leave the country, having previously travelled to Turkey as a test for onward travel to Iran, and he was in contact with his Iranian handlers, making attempts to get to the embassy.
But he was arrested again three weeks later after a colleague spotted him in the leisure centre. He was then held on remand in Wandsworth Prison, where he managed to get a job in the kitchen.
Escape planned for ‘quite some time’
Khalife told the jury he planned the escape because he wanted to be moved to the high-security unit in Belmarsh to avoid sex predators and terrorists who wanted to do him harm.
Khalife escaped under a Bidfood lorry. Pic: PA
Khalife used a makeshift sling. Pic: Met Police
Police believe he had been planning the “pretty audacious” break-out for “quite some time” and he wrote in his prison diary of a “failed” escape attempt on 21 August last year.
Khalife told the jury he attached the makeshift rope to the Bidfood lorry on 1 September to test prison security as it made its daily deliveries.
“When I had made the decision to actually leave the prison I was going to do it properly,” he said, describing how he concealed himself, resting his back on the sling as the vehicle was searched.
The driver Balazs Werner said two guards told him someone was missing as they checked the truck with a torch and mirror and he was surprised he was allowed to drive off and that the prison wasn’t in lockdown.
Khalife said he waited for the lorry to stop, dropped to the ground and lay in the prone position until it moved off.
He used the phone at the Rose of York pub in Richmond before a contact withdrew £400 from a nearby cashpoint, which he used to buy a sleeping bag, a mobile phone and a change of clothes.
CCTV footage captured his movements as he bought clothes from Marks & Spencer, stole a hat from Mountain Warehouse, drank coffee at McDonald’s and even read about his escape in the newspaper.
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From October: Khalife caught on CCTV. Pic: Met Police
When he was arrested on the footpath of the Grand Union Canal in Northolt after four days on the run, Khalife told police: “My body aches. I f****d myself up under the lorry” and “I don’t know how immigrants do it”.
Police said he had no help from anyone inside prison, Iran or close family members in London but a 24-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of assisting an offender and the investigation is ongoing.
The prisons watchdog called for Wandsworth to be put into emergency measures in the wake of Khalife’s escape, while a security audit identified “81 points of failure” and resulted in “long overdue” upgrades to CVTV cameras which hadn’t worked for more than a year.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) later announced it would be redirecting £100m from across the prison service to spend over five years on bringing in “urgent improvements”.
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Meanwhile, Bethan David, from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “As a serving soldier of the British Army Daniel Khalife was employed and entrusted to uphold and protect the national security of this country. But, for purposes of his own, Daniel Khalife, used his employment to undermine national security.
“The sharing of the information could have exposed military personnel to serious harm, or a risk to life, and prejudiced the safety and security of the United Kingdom.
“It is against the law to collate and share secret and sensitive information for a purpose against the interests of the United Kingdom.
“Such hostile and illegal activities jeopardise the national security of the United Kingdom, and the CPS will always seek to prosecute anyone that carries out counter state threats.”
UK
MasterChef host Gregg Wallace steps down as historical allegations of misconduct are investigated
The Prince and Princess of Wales have paid tribute to a teenage photographer who they met during an investiture at Windsor Castle.
Liz Hatton, who died yesterday, was pictured hugging Kate after the princess invited her to take pictures of the Prince of Wales at the event in October.
The 17-year-old from Harrogate started a photography bucket list appeal in January after she was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer.
She was given between six months and three years to live.
Kate and Will with Liz (centre), her mother Vicky Roboyna, stepfather Aaron and brother Mateo. Pic: Andrew Parsons/Kensington Palace
In a statement, William and Kate said: “We are so sorry to hear that Liz Hatton has sadly passed away. It was an honour to have met such a brave and humble young woman.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Liz’s parents Vicky and Aaron and her brother Mateo at this unimaginably difficult time. W & C.”
Announcing her death on X, her mother Vicky Roboyna said: “Our incredible daughter Liz died in the early hours of this morning. She remained determined to the last.
“Even yesterday, she was still making plans. We are so very proud of the kindness, empathy and courage she has shown in the last year.
“She was not only a phenomenal photographer, she was the best human and the most wonderful daughter and big sister we could ever have asked for.
“No one could have fought harder for life than she did. There is a gaping Liz-shaped hole in our lives that I am not sure how we will ever fill.”
She asked people to share one of Liz’s photos in tribute using the hashtag #LizHatton and to support the family’s mission to fund research into desmoplastic small round cell tumours, which Liz was diagnosed with.
She has set up a JustGiving fundraising page with a goal of raising £100,000.
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In a personal message on social media after meeting Liz in October, William and Kate said: “A pleasure to meet with Liz at Windsor today.
“A talented young photographer whose creativity and strength has inspired us both. Thank you for sharing your photos and story with us. W&C.”
Ticking off items from her bucket list, Liz went on to photograph comedian Michael McIntyre, the red carpet at the MTV Europe Music Awards, the London Air Ambulances from a helipad and joined acclaimed photographer Rankin in leading a fashion shoot.
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