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Michael Gove has insisted the UK needs “big, hairy, audacious” environmental goals such as the ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars from 2030, but warned of the risk of provoking a populist backlash.
The UK levelling-up secretary was responding to questions at a live recording of the Political Fix podcast during Saturday’s FT Weekend Festival. He was asked whether prime minister Rishi Sunak’s administration planned to water down important green initiatives.
In a sign of the thinking of Conservatives on an issue that has dominated the summer’s political agenda, the former environment secretary said the growing strength of Germany’s far right exposed the danger of angering voters over green initiatives.
Gove told the event that the 2030 pledge to ban new petrol and diesel cars would remain, but added it was vital to include some flexibility in policies.
“In Germany, one of the . . . political problems is that the speed with which the move towards changing domestic heating has gone has become a political flashpoint,” he said.
Discontent over that issue had contributed to the surge in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, Gove said.
“I would not want to see a party like the AFD having 20 per cent or more of public support in the UK.”
While insisting that it was vital to continue with green policies, Gove said: “I do think that there’s often a matter of conversation and persuasion.”
Conservative politicians have argued that a rolling back of net zero and other green targets could be a route for the party to close the wide gap between itself and the opposition Labour party in opinion polls.
The debate has been galvanised by the Conservatives’ narrow win in July’s Uxbridge by-election. The campaign was dominated by London Labour mayor Sadiq Khan’s policy of extending the capital’s Ultra-Low Emissions Zone for vehicles to its outer boroughs.
Gove insisted that the core of the green agenda had to remain in place, but with sensitivities about how policies affected individuals.
“There’s a recognition, particularly at the moment, that if we’re going to take people with us on this journey, we need to make sure that we’re not creating a number of disproportionate penalties or punitive measures that lead people to suffer economically or feel that the sacrifice isn’t worth it,” he said.
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