CHANGING GEAR
Rishi Sunak CONFIRMS delay to petrol and diesel car ban in win for Sun’s Give Us A Brake campaign
THE hated ban on new petrol and diesel cars will be delayed by five years until 2035, Rishi Sunak confirmed today.
In a major speech delivered from Downing Street, the PM hailed The Sun's Give Us A Brake campaign as he ripped up expensive net zero policies.
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He announced that the deadline to replace boilers with £10,000 heat pumps will be postponed.
And "no strings attached" subsidies to purchase new eco-heaters will double to £7,500.
The PM also vowed that households will never be forced to use seven different bins and won't be taxed for eating meat or flying.
Mr Sunak heaped praise on The Sun for pleading with ministers not to force unaffordable green transition costs on hard-up households.
He said: "What I'm focused on today is something that that The Sun in particular has been campaigning on for a long time.
"It's finding a fair proportional and pragmatic way to deliver net zero while bringing the country along with us and that's what we're delivering today.”
Major changes to net zero rules announced by Rishi Sunak today
- DELAY ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 to 2035
- DELAY ban on gas boilers until 2035, with poorest exempt from switching altogether
- BOOST cash grants for household boiler upgrades by 50 per cent to £7,500
- SCRAP proposed taxes on eating meat
- SCRAP proposed taxes on flying
- SCRAP a proposed edict forcing people to sort rubbish into seven different bins
- SCRAP a proposed diktat for compulsory car sharing if you drive to work
- ENSURE new carbon budgets are properly funded
- LAUNCH new energy infrastructure plan to make Britain self-reliant
Hitting back at critics, the PM insisted he'd have "no problem whatsoever" defending the move to his two climate-passionate daughters.
Mr Sunak said: "I have spent my first year as Prime Minister bringing back stability to our economy, your government, and our country.
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"And now it is time to address the bigger, longer-term questions we face.
"The real choice confronting us is do we really want to change our country and build a better future for our children, or do we want to carry on as we are.
";I have made my decision: we are going to change.
"And over the coming months, I will set out a series of long-term decisions to deliver that change.
"And that starts today, with a new approach to one of the biggest challenges we face: climate change."
Mr Sunak promised that he's still committed to achieving net zero by 2050.
But he vowed he won't burden Brits with huge green transition costs.
"I'm not saying there will be no hard choices, and nor am I abandoning any of our targets and commitments," Mr Sunak said.
"But there’s nothing ambitious about simply asserting a goal for a short-term headline without being honest with the public about the tough choices and sacrifices involved and without any meaningful democratic debate about how we get there."
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In a jab at his predecessor Boris Johnson, the PM said that "previous governments" have tried to hit net zero "simply by wishing it".
"No one in Westminster politics has yet had the courage to look people in the eye and explain what’s really involved," Mr Sunak said.
"That’s wrong – and it changes now."
Mr Sunak shifted position late last night after thousands backed our calls to spare hard-working Brits stumping up for expensive climate policies.
New polling from YouGov today showed Brits mainly support the move, with 50 per cent in favour and just 34 per cent against.
Ahead of his speech in Downing Street this afternoon, Tory MPs rowed in behind Mr Sunak's change of tack.
Co-chairs of the New Conservatives group, Miriam Cates and Danny Kruger, said: "We know that new Conservative voters will welcome this announcement as a common-sense approach to the environmental challenges that we face.
"They will know that our party is on the side of working people who are trying to get on, make a living, and provide for their families.
"Our message to colleagues is to recognise the impact of this policy on those voters."
But some fellow MPs were critical, including Tory Chris Skidmore who warned it could be the "gravest mistake" of Mr Sunak's premiership.
Ex-PM Boris Johnson and former Cop26 President Alok Sharma also lashed out at the decision.
Boris said: "This country leads on tackling climate change and in creating new green technology.
"The green industrial revolution is already generating huge numbers of high quality jobs and helping to drive growth and level up our country.
"We cannot afford to falter now or in any way lose our ambition for this country."
Responding to the PM's speech today, Shadow Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband said: “Today is an act of weakness from a desperate, directionless Prime Minister, dancing to the tune of a small minority of his party.
";Liz Truss crashed the economy and Rishi Sunak is trashing our economic future.
“Delaying the phase out of petrol and diesel cars will add billions in costs to families and damage investor confidence in the UK, as we have seen from the furious business reaction today."
SUNAK'S PLEDGE
After news of his climbdown was leaked yesterday, the PM got on the front foot with a message to voters.
He said: “I know people are frustrated with politics and want real change. Our political system rewards short-term decision-making that is holding our country back.
"For too many years politicians in governments of all stripes have not been honest about costs and trade offs. Instead they have taken the easy way out, saying we can have it all.
“This realism doesn’t mean losing our ambition or abandoning our commitments. Far from it. I am proud that Britain is leading the world on climate change.
"We are committed to Net Zero by 2050 and the agreements we have made internationally - but doing so in a better, more proportionate way.
“Our politics must again put the long-term interests of our country before the short-term political needs of the moment.
“No leak will stop me beginning the process of telling the country how and why we need to change.”
GIVE US A BRAKE
The Sun's Give Us A Brake campaign asks ministers to commit to five clear promises.
- No ULEZ expansion in London or nationwide
- No Low-Traffic Neighbourhoods where the public objects
- Delay on 2030 diesel and petrol car ban until the country is ready
- Scrap edict that 22% of car sales must be electric by 2024
- No new green motoring stealth taxes and fuel duty
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Polling conducted for The Sun by YouGov last month showed more and more Brits have backed The Sun's call to delay the 2030 ban.
More than half - 53 per cent - now are now opposed to the clampdown compared to 36 per cent that support it.
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