The government was slammed by the Green Party co-leader in the Commons today after it pushed for a climate bill to be postponed.
Ministers kicked a proposal to make the UK’s environmental targets legally binding down the road, even though the government has already pledged to be a climate leader on the international stage.
It comes after co-proposer of the bill, Lib Dem MP Roz Savage, had “fruitful conversations” on the proposals with the government.
So, after four and a half hours of debate, MPs voted 120 to seven in favour of adjourning a debate on the Climate and Nature Bill’s second reading.
It has been rearranged for July 11, but the bill is not expected to progress any further in the current parliamentary session.
Shortly before MPs officially decided to postpone the legislation, Denyer, who co-proposed the bill, hit out at everyone responsible for delaying it – including Savage.
Denyer said: “I understand the member for South Cotswolds [Roz Savage] has agreed not to push it to a vote today in exchange, it seems, for just a meeting with the Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero [Ed Miliband] and a video, with an agreement to work together but with no specific commitments.”
Lib Dem MPs responded strongly to that, with one saying: “Are we just making stuff up now?”
But Denyer continued: “That’s her decision. I am sad about it, but I wish her well and I hope it works out.
“But I cannot tell you how disappointed I am, how disappointed millions of people will be to learn how the government has behaved.”
She added: “Demanding a promise not to push it to a vote in exchange for no regulation, no legislation, no new targets. Peanuts.”
But Savage also defended herself, saying: “I very much believe we do need to have cross-party consensus with this so I have been willing and, in fact, eager to have conversations with the government on this.
“I have been an environmental campaigner for the last 20 years, I have tried the placard waving, I have marched in the streets, that absolutely has an important role to play, but there is a reason I chose to come to this place and that is to take the policy approach.
“And as a third party the only way we can do that is by working with government.”
Meanwhile, Nature minister Mary Creagh said she was looking at “measurable, specific, time-bound targets with clear government plans to underpin them in order to achieve them”.
Shortly before the debate, Denyer also wrote on X that a vote for this bill “is a vote for a liveable future”.
“Those who vote against must look to their consciences and ask why they’re prepared to squander this historic opportunity,” she said.
She added that it was “nothing short of a national embarrassment for the government to struggle so hard to avoid legally committing to the promises they’ve already made on the international stage.”
The spat come after the government has already angered environmentalists over its alleged plans to expand Heathrow airport and Keir Starmer’s crackdown on those who oppose building developments in a bid to grow the economy.
Another co-sponsor of the bill Labour MP Clive Lewis was just as irate as Denyer, telling the Commons that he did not want “growth that comes at the cost of my daughter and her generation’s future”.
Meanwhile, shadow energy secretary Andrew Bowie wrote on X: “Whilst respecting those supporting it, I will be speaking against a bill that is deeply flawed, would leave Britain and Brits poorer, undermine our democratic process and damage our energy security.”