Zac Goldsmith claims he's 'very tempted' to switch support to Labour

Tory ex-minister Zac Goldsmith claims he’s ‘very tempted’ to switch his support to Labour as he takes a fresh swipe at Rishi Sunak over climate change action

• Conservative peer admits he could be enticed to back Sir Keir Starmer’s party 

Tory ex-minister Zac Goldsmith has claimed he is ‘very tempted’ to switch his support to Labour as he took a fresh swipe at Rishi Sunak over climate change action.

The Conservative peer, who quit the Government in June, attacked his own party for not having a ‘clear answer’ to the ‘biggest challenge we’ve ever faced’.

He revealed he could be enticed to support Labour if Sir Keir Starmer made a ‘real commitment’ to net-zero efforts.

Lord Goldsmith departed as a Foreign Office minister earlier this summer as he delivered a blast at the Prime Minister for being ‘simply uninterested’ in environmental issues.

The 48-year-old also criticised the Government’s climate change ‘apathy’ in a stinging resignation letter.

Tory ex-minister Zac Goldsmith has claimed he is ‘very tempted’ to switch his support to Labour as he took a fresh swipe at Rishi Sunak over climate change action

The Conservative peer, who quit the Government in June, attacked the PM for not having a ‘clear answer’ to the ‘biggest challenge we’ve ever faced’

In an interview with the BBC’s HARDtalk, Lord Goldsmith – a close ally of ex-PM Boris Johnson – has now said he is ‘desperately hoping the Conservative Party comes to its senses’.

‘The simple truth is there is no pathway to net zero and there’s no solution to climate change that does not involve nature, massive efforts to protect and restore the natural world,’ he added.

‘And at the moment, I’m not hearing any of that from the Labour Party.

‘If I do, if there’s a real commitment now – the kind of commitment, frankly, that we saw when Boris Johnson was the leader – then I’d be very tempted to throw my weight behind that party and support them in any way I could.’

Lord Goldsmith’s resignation from Government in June came after he was among eight MPs and peers who were criticised for launching ‘attacks’ on the Privileges Committee probe into whether Mr Johnson lied to Parliament over Partygate.

Mr Sunak accused Lord Goldsmith of quitting as a minister rather than apologising for his comments about the Partygate probe, which he suggested was a ‘kangaroo court’ and a ‘witch hunt’.

But Lord Goldsmith disputed Downing Street’s claims and insisted he was ‘happy to apologise’ for publicly sharing his views about the inquiry.

He wrote in his resignation letter to Mr Sunak: ‘The problem is not that the Government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our Prime Minister, are simply uninterested.

‘That signal, or lack of it, has trickled down through Whitehall and caused a kind of paralysis.

‘I will never understand how, with all the knowledge we now have about our fundamental reliance on the natural world and the speed with which we are destroying it, anyone can be uninterested.

‘But even if this existential challenge leaves you personally unmoved, there is a world of people who do care very much. And you will need their votes.’

Following the Tories’ win in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election – largely thanks to a local backlash against the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (Ulez) – Mr Sunak has made further efforts to signal a change in the Government’s approach to green policies.

Although the PM has reiterated his commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 – as well as sticking to the 2030 ban on new petrol and diesel vehicles – he has announced a boost to oil and gas drilling in the North Sea. 

Mr Sunak has pledged to ‘scrutinise’ green policies and their impact on Britons’ household budgets and stressed that action to reach net-zero needs to be done in a ‘proportionate and pragmatic way’ amid the cost-of-living crisis.

The PM has also ordered a review of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) as part of an effort to show car drivers he is ‘on their side’.

Lord Goldsmith was given a life peerage by Mr Johnson in December 2019 so he could keep a ministerial role despite losing his seat in the House of Commons as Richmond Park MP at that month’s general election.

Mr Johnson’s wife, Carrie Johnson, is also a close friend of Lord Goldsmith, who she worked for in her first job in politics.

In 2016, Lord Goldsmith failed to beat Sadiq Khan to be elected London mayor and was accused of running an ‘Islamophobic’ campaign against the Labour politician. 

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