THE Scottish Tories have been panned after they asked MSPs to celebrate Rishi Sunak’s climate U-turns for bringing policy further “in line with the European Union”.
The Scots Conservatives praised the UK Government’s alignment with the EU in their proposed amendment to a “climate emergency” motion put to the Edinburgh parliament on Tuesday.
The Tories’ proposals caused controversy even within their own group, with backbench MSP Maurice Golden voting against his own party’s efforts to praise the UK Government’s net-zero rollbacks.
Golden, a former Scottish Tory chief whip, told ITV Representing Border that he was “incredibly sad” to have to oppose his own party over the issue.
NEW: Maurice Golden says he will vote AGAINST the Scottish Conservatives for the first time.@mgoldenmsp says he feels 'incredibly sad'. But Tory MSP says he cannot back his party's support of UK Government scaling back #netzero targets. Story: https://t.co/NL7CMUYPHM pic.twitter.com/BJ6pddiMcm
— Representing Border (@ITVBorderRB) September 26, 2023
It comes as MSPs debated a motion from Scotland’s Net Zero Secretary Màiri McAllan asking the parliament to say it “deeply regrets … the unilateral reversal of policies set out by the UK Government”.
McAllan’s motion further asked MSPs to urge “the UK Government to listen to overwhelming feedback and rethink what is an unforgivable betrayal of current and future generations, and calls for a new, mutually respectful four-nations partnership in meeting one of the most significant challenges facing people and the planet in this century”.
The LibDems, Labour and the Tories all proposed their own amendments to the motion.
The Labour and LibDem groups left the SNP minister’s motion completely intact, but aimed to add on to its end.
However, the Tories sought to delete much of McAllan’s motion and instead asked MSPs to praise “the new net zero policy announcements from the UK Government, which provide extensive household upgrade support with more scope for consumer freedom, bring the UK petrol and diesel car sales timelines in line with the European Union’s and demonstrate a commitment to realistic achievement of ambitious environmental goals without alienating households”.
The Scottish Tories celebrating alignment with the EU was branded nothing more than a “part of a cynical culture war” by Green MSP Mark Ruskell.
He said: "This must be one of the only times that the Tories have sought EU alignment and it's in order to keep polluting cars on our road and trash our environment as part of a cynical culture war. Meanwhile the world is burning around us.
"With a summer of wildfires and floods we have all seen the devastating impact that the climate emergency is having here and now.
“Yet the Tories are backtracking on long standing commitments and doubling down on the same disastrous policies that have brought us to the brink of environmental breakdown."
Previously, SNP MSP Kevin Stewart urged Douglas Ross's Scottish Tory group to “find a backbone and add their voices to the growing numbers calling Rishi Sunak to re-think this dangerous U-turn" on climate policies.
He added: "Rishi Sunak pandering to the right-wing of his party for short term political reprieve will go down as one of the worst decisions taken by a Prime Minister in living memory."
After votes were tallied, McAllan's motion passed by 86 votes to 29.
The Tories' attempt to amend it was defeated by 88 votes to 28, with rebel MSP Golden among those to oppose his party.
