Migration minister Mike Tapp accuses Reform UK’s head of policy Zia Yusuf of ‘snowflakery’The Conservative party’s news release about getting rid of the Climate Change Act (see 10.23am) describes it as legislation passed by Ed Miliband (energy secretary in 2008, as he is now). It does not mention the fact that the change to the act setting 2050 as the target date for achieving net zero – the aspect of the legislation that Kemi Badenoch finds particularly objectionable – was passed when Theresa May was PM.But Gavin Barwell, who was May’s chief of staff at the time and who is now a Conservative peer, does remember. He has told HuffPost UK that the policy announced by Kemi Badenoch today is a mistake. He said:This is both bad policy and bad politics. If you look at the US, where policies like these are being enacted, electricity prices are going up, not down. And polling shows Conservative voters support the net zero target.There is no future for the Conservative party in being a Reform tribute act.The 2008 legislation has forced successive governments to introduce punitive measures that have hit family finances – including the Boiler Tax which will push up the price of gas boilers to force people to adopt heat pumps just for the purpose of meeting a self-imposed target.The act ignores the fact that climate change is a global problem. If the British chemicals, cement, or metals industry shuts down and moves abroad to countries with cheaper but dirtier energy, then Britain won’t need any less chemicals, cement, or metals – we will just import more from abroad instead, and lose out on all the jobs, tax revenue, and economic growth. Britain will be poorer and global emissions will increase. Continue reading...