When he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak hung a portrait of his predecessor Nigel Lawson behind his desk. This signalled how deeply he identified with the great tax-cutter, champion of privatisation and believer in popular capitalism. But it is also worth recalling that Lawson, who died in April, deplored what he called “the new religion of eco-fundamentalism”.
In this respect, Sunak is proving no less a disciple to his master. In a campaign email last month, the PM denounced Just Stop Oil as “eco-zealots” and “eco-fanatics”. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph this weekend, he declared that “I just want to make sure people know that I’m on their side in supporting them to use their cars to do all the things that matter to them”; announced a review of low traffic neighbourhoods (LTNs), an absurd incursion into local authority decision-making; and accused Labour of being “anti-motorist”, citing the Welsh government’s plan to introduce a 20mph limit in all residential areas and Sadiq Khan’s extension of Ulez.
