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Rishi Sunak told a minister and close friend of Carrie Johnson to apologise for criticising a committee which investigated her husband, hours before he quit with a stinging attack on the PM’s green credentials.
Climate minister Lord Goldsmith stepped down this morning saying the PM and his government was showing ‘apathy’ towards climate change.
He personally accused Mr Sunak of being ‘uninterested’ in the subject, saying there had been a slowdown in efforts to reach Net Zero under his leadership.
But at a lunchtime press conference the PM hit back, saying that he had asked the peer to apologise over an attack on the Privileges Committee over an investigation into Boris Johnson.
Goldsmith was one of eight Tories singled out by the Tory-majority committee yesterday for criticism after they questioned its motives in ruling he misled Parliament over Covid lawbreaking.
Mr Sunak told reporters: ‘He was asked to apologise for his comments about the Privileges Committee because I felt that those were incompatible with his position and as a Minister he’s obviously chosen to take a different course. I accept that.’
It comes just 24 hours after the PM’s spokesman said he retained full confidence in the peer in the wake of the Privilege’s Committee criticism.
Lord Goldsmith, an environmentalist and close friend of Carrie Johnson, the wife of the former prime minister, stepped down with an attack on government apathy on the issue
But at a lunchtime press conference the PM hit back, saying that he had asked the peer to apologise over an attack on the Privileges Committee over an investigation into Boris Johnson
The former MP (pictured with now estranged wife Alice Rothschild last summer) was ennobled by Mr Johnson after losing his Richmond Park seat in 2019 and was seen as a strong influence on his net-zero drive while in power.
The former MP was ennobled by Mr Johnson after losing his Richmond Park seat in 2019 and was seen as a strong influence on his net-zero drive while in power.
But that drive has markedly slowed under Mr Sunak, amid pressure from Tory backbenchers.
Lord Goldsmith was Minister for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate and Environment at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. His decision to quit comes on the day Mr Sunak unveils his long-term plan to reform and resuscitate the NHS.
In a two-page letter posted online, the peer said: ‘Prime Minister, having been able to get so much done previously, I have struggled even to hold the line in recent months.
‘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 at which we are destroying it, anyone can be uninterested.’
He said he was ‘horrified’ that key animal welfare commitments have also been abandoned, such as the Kept Animals Bill, which would have banned live exports of animals for slaughter and toughened up rules on pets.
He concluded the letter: ‘It has been a privilege to be able to work with so many talented people in government, in particular my Private Office, and to have been able to make a difference to a cause I have been committed to for as long as I remember.
‘But this government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable. With great reluctance I am therefore stepping down as a Minister in order to focus my energy where it can be more useful.’
However he was later criticised by another Tory peer who worked for Boris Johnson. Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister and a climate change critic, said: ‘ I hope Zac Goldsmith is right to have detected less commitment from Rishi Sunak to global preaching on fashionable environmental and climate causes, paid for by UK taxpayers. Any such trend is very much to be encouraged.’
Mr Johnson handed Lord Goldsmith his peerage shortly after the 2019 general election, in which the multi-millionaire environmentalist lost his Richmond Park seat to the Liberal Democrats
Mr Johnson handed Lord Goldsmith his peerage shortly after the 2019 general election, in which the multi-millionaire environmentalist lost his Richmond Park seat to the Liberal Democrats.
This allowed Lord Goldsmith to remain as a Government minister in Mr Johnson’s administration.
He was sacked by Liz Truss from his role as an environment minister at the start of her brief tenure in No10 last year but kept his Foreign Office brief.
In 2021 it was revealed how Mr and Mrs Johnson enjoyed a free holiday when they stayed at a holiday home of Lord Goldsmith’s family in southern Spain.
Photos emerged of Mr Johnson painting at an easel while enjoying his break at the Goldsmith villa, which was claimed to usually cost as much as £25,000 a week to rent.
Mr Johnson’s first job in politics was working for the now peer.
Lord Goldsmith, 48, is a father of six who has an estimated fortune of £300million. He married Alice Rothschild, 39, in 2013, but they announced their separation earlier this year.
They have a nine-year-old daughter Dolly, born in the year they wed, a son Max, seven, and youngest daughter Edie, five.
In 2016, Lord Goldsmith was selected as the Tory candidate in the London mayoral election, but lost to Sadiq Khan after a highly acrimonious contest.
The same year, he lost a by-election in Richmond Park that he had initiated by resigning his seat over the planned expansion of Heathrow Airport. He stood as an independent, but lost to the Lib Dems, who overturned his majority of 23,000.
He regained the constituency as a Conservative candidate at the 2017 general election with a majority of just 45 votes and was appointed as a minister, before losing it again in 2019.
The departure comes just a day after the Tory peer was censured in a report by the Privileges Committee which named Mr Johnson’s allies said to have put ‘improper pressure’ on its investigation into his partygate lies to MPs.
The cross-party panel had suggested Parliament should consider what action to take over Lord Goldsmith and seven other Conservative politicians over comments about the inquiry’s work.
The Liberal Democrats said the Prime Minister should have ‘had the guts’ to sack Lord Goldsmith the day before his ministerial resignation following his ‘brutal’ censure.
Sarah Olney, the party’s Treasury spokesman and the current Richmond Park MP, said: ‘This Conservative chaos is never-ending.
‘Every day brings more more resignations and scandal in this depressing Westminster soap opera.
‘Rishi Sunak should have had the guts to sack Zac Goldsmith yesterday when he was brutally criticised by the partygate watchdog. Sunak is clearly too weak to control his own party.’
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