A senior Tory MP has slammed the Government's "smoke and mirrors" oil and gas bill in the latest headache for Rishi Sunak over green policies.
Sir Alok Sharma, who was president of the Cop26 climate summit, said he would not back the controversial Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill in a crunch in the House of Commons on Monday afternoon.
Sir Alok claimed the legislation shows ministers are not serious about meeting international commitments on tackling climate change and moving away from fossil fuels.
"I will not be voting for this Bill and, as it is currently drafted, this bill is a total distraction," he told BBC Radio 4.
"It is a smoke and mirrors Bill which frankly changes nothing...What [it] does do is reinforce that unfortunate perception about the UK rowing back from climate action.
"We saw this last Autumn with the chopping and changing of some policies and actually not being serious about meeting our international commitments."
If passed the bill would require the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the body that grants oil and gas licences, to hold annual licensing rounds for new drilling.
But Sir Alok argued that the NSTA can "already grant licences when it thinks it is necessary" and the Government "has made pretty clear irrespective of this Bill that will not change".
The row over green policy has plunged the Prime Minister's Government into fresh crisis at the beginning of an election year.
Former energy minister Chris Skidmore last week vowed to quit as a Tory MP over the new legislation.
He argued that the Bill “clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas” and said he would resign the Conservative whip forcing a by-election in his Gloucestershire constituency.
The Tories are already gearing up for a vote in Wellingborough after disgraced MP Peter Bone was unseated by voters in a recall petition.
Mr Skidmore, who led a Government review of net zero, said the "future will judge harshly" anyone who backs the new oil licensing bill.
Tory peer Zac Goldsmith, a former Environment Minister, added: "Conservatives are facing almost certain defeat at the election and now is not the time for colleagues to be slavishly obedient to a leadership that will not be there in a matter of months.
"Today’s vote is unlikely to change much. It is, as Alok Sharma has said, a distraction. But MPs won’t be able to sanitise their records in the years to come."
