Priti Patel: We must pause all net zero targets

Former home secretary criticises ‘corrosive culture’ of pursuing time-limited goals, saying voters are being ‘left behind’

Dame Priti Patel has urged the Government to pause its net zero targets, warning that voters were being “left behind” by the pursuit of green policies.

The former home secretary ‘criticised’ a “corrosive culture” of pursuing time-limited targets amid pressure on ministers to redraw their environmental objectives.

Conservative backbenchers have urged a rethink after Labour failed to win this month’s Uxbridge by-election amid a voter backlash against the expansion of London’s ultra-low emissions zone (Ulez).

In an interview with Camilla Tominey on GB News, Dame Priti said: “My views on this are that actually we need to pause all this activity – 2030 is not that far away you know, click your fingers [and] 2050 will be upon us.

“The public are not ready for this, and importantly we cannot just have the state, the Government, just sort of saying ‘these are the targets that you have to meet’ when we don’t have the technology. We’re not ready.

“Now if we want a sensible conversation about climate and the impact of climate change, recognising there are problems is one thing, but making sure that we have the tools and the ability that doesn’t impose costs and taxes on ordinary people, this is the space we have to be in. And we’re not – we’re not in that space at all.”

Warning against “mission creep”, Ms Patel added: “My county council is talking about net zero, all local authorities are. Now they can talk about it but stop spending our money, quite frankly, when public funds need to be targeted and spent on issues on public service delivery, first and foremost – statutory services.”