LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer abandoned the fight against climate change today by dropping his plans for a £28 billion-a-year green prosperity fund.

In his most widely trailed U-turn yet, the party confirmed the “fiscal rules” he has shackled himself to would take priority over tackling climate change.

Labour has been dithering over the policy in public for months, alarmed that the Tories were using the commitment to assert that it meant a Starmer government would put up taxes.

But critics have noted that in attempting to defuse that charge, the announcement underlines the Tories’ other main attack line, which is that Mr Starmer cannot be trusted following one policy change after another.

Labour’s hard-right, egged on by Lord Peter Mandelson, had been pushing for the policy to be junked for some time, making Sir Keir’s decision predictable for many observers.

As was the apparent decision of shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband, a leading champion of the original plan, who followed his leader in supporting the slimmed-down policy.

It is understood that the party’s home insulation scheme will be a particular victim of the scaling back.

Former shadow climate change minister Barry Gardiner said the U-turn is “economically illiterate and it’s environmentally irresponsible.”

“If you stand for nothing, then the government will actually write your policies for you and they can paint their own picture,” he said.

“So I think politically, it’s strategically incompetent.”

Other MPs attacking the move included Mick Whitley, who said it “will leave many voters asking what, if anything, our party stands for,” former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who termed it a “reckless betrayal,” Bell Ribeiro-Addy and Olivia Blake.

Labour metro mayors Andy Burnham and Steve Rotherham also urged Sir Keir to stick to his original plans, while former Blair aide John McTernan termed the decision “the most stupid Labour has made.”

Mike Childs of Friends of the Earth said: “For years UK climate action has been undermined by dither, delay and lukewarm support from government.

“We urgently need real political leadership to confront the climate crisis.”

Greenpeace’s Rebecca Newsom slammed Sir Keir’s “weak political, economic and climate leadership.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said that “the labour movement has to stand up to the Conservatives’ false accusations of fiscal irresponsibility.

“Britain needs more, not less investment,” she said.