Julia Hartley-Brewer’s claim on BBC Question Time that the climate crisis is merely “the weather” has been roundly criticised online and saw fellow panel member David Lammy with his head in his hands.
Her comments on Thursday provoked online outrage when she criticised environmental activists as “deeply immoral”.
The guests were debating a report by the UN Environment Programme that said the world, and especially richer carbon polluting nations, remains “far behind” and is not doing nearly enough to reach any of the global goals limiting future warming.
TalkTV host Ms Hartley-Brewer called the report “a load of nonsense”.
“I think it’s a bit ridiculous to say that climate change is not as bad as is it. Did we not all experience this Summer where we got 40C heat?”
— BBC Question Time (@bbcquestiontime) October 27, 2022
This #bbcqt audience member urges the panel to take climate change seriously pic.twitter.com/r5ylSNByeK
“You’ve got a lot of very entitled middle class people who have had a very nice life and they want to stop people living a good life,” she said.
“I think these people are tantruming toddlers who have clearly never been told no by their parents and I think it is time we told them no. I think they are deeply immoral.”
She added: “The world is not on fire. And we are not going to die. This is catastrophising stuff and it is not in the scientific sections of the IPCC reports.”
Armando Lannucci, whose series’ The Thick of It and Veep parodied politicians in similar situations, was on hand to mock Ms Hartley-Brewer’s view - saying “oh, and there wasn’t a pandemic,” to roars of laughter as she finished.
Mr Lammy said: “Sadly, in the Conservative Party, because of this point of view that exists, our prime minister has announced that despite us chairing Cop that he will not be going.”
He added that a new Labour government will not be giving new licences for oil and gas.
Ms Hartley-Brewer said “it’s called weather,” when asked by an audience member about recent floodings and the need to take action.
The argument ended after Question Time host Fiona Bruce challenged her on the availability of data around the frequency of extreme weather events - a point which Ms Hartley-Brewer disputed.
