“Rishi likes to jump on his little jet. I don’t have a car, I don’t fly on planes.”
In the opinion of Claire Savage, the manager of the Ironstone Miner pub in Guisborough, the prime minister’s plan to water down net zero commitments that he says impose a direct cost on consumers is disingenuous.
And she is not alone in thinking that. Savage lives in the constituency of Simon Clarke, the Tory MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, who said on Tuesday that his constituents did not support the rollback.
The former levelling up secretary, who served under Liz Truss, posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Our climate is changing dramatically. The UK has carved out a world-leading role delivering net zero in a market-friendly way that will deliver clean, secure energy and thousands of jobs in deprived communities like Teesside. My red wall constituents overwhelmingly support it.”
And he appears to be right. Plans that could include delaying a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and watering down the phasing-out of gas boilers were not popular among those grabbing lunch in torrential rain on Wednesday.
For 17-year-old Jack McDougall, a college student, there needs to be a more holistic approach to tackling net zero: he said the commitments the prime minister was rolling back on were already not enough.
“It’s naive just to say we need to invest in more electric cars because in more deprived areas affording them is an issue. Mitigating climate change is really important so we need more investment, and wider investment, rather than less.”
McDougall, who is studying geography, added: “I’m going to spend my life being affected by this. The damage is already being proven by the wildfires we’re seeing.”
Joanne Powell, who works at a local accountancy firm, agreed but added that better infrastructure would incentivise more people to buy electric cars, rather than banning petrol cars. She said: “The main problem with the take-up of electric cars is that there aren’t enough charging points. Things are not going to get better until they install more.”
Green industry is growing on Teesside, where Europe’s first lithium refinery was given the green light last month.
It will start production in 2027, using materials imported from Australia, and is expected to have an annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of battery-grade lithium chemicals, enough to provide batteries for 1m electric car batteries.
“In the north-east in general, more jobs are needed,” said Amy Leach, a criminology student. “It’s worth investing to create those jobs.”
Sunak’s move is designed to shore up support among those who voted for the Conservatives in 2019. But a new poll of 4,000 voters by Public First for the centre-right thinktank Onward shows it could backfire.
According to the poll, the target of reaching net zero by 2050 is overwhelmingly popular with voters, including Conservative ones, 49% of whom say they support it while only 20% oppose it.
The individual policies Sunak will roll back also poll well: 35% of respondents said they supported the plan to phase out gas boilers by 2035, compared with 27% who opposed it. Meanwhile, 38% supported ending the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030, with only 31% opposed to the move.
Sunak’s announcement came as a poll by the campaign group Green New Deal Rising found that most people wanted the UK government, fossil fuel companies and wealthy people to pay more for climate action measures.
A total of 60% of the public thought increasing taxes or ending subsidies for fossil fuel companies, rather than making cuts in other areas of UK spending, should be used to deliver the international climate funding the UK has promised.
At the Ironstone Miner, a Wetherspoon’s pub named after the industry that supported the town – and left its scars on the land – Savage said she felt there was a need for a more international view.
She said green technologies themselves were far from perfect and a big concern was the impact on people who lived and worked in the areas where minerals used for electric cars were mined.
“What about the people who are left with big holes in the ground and environmental problems? Aren’t we ruining the environment by digging up places?” she said. “I’m not against [net zero investment], not at all. I just want them to do what’s best for everyone, to do good.”
