ZACK POLANSKI demanded ministers deliver help for families and farmers as new data revealed today that extreme heat may lead to the worst harvest on record.

The Green leader accused new Prime Minister Andy Burnham of failing to act, warning: “What we’re living through right now are likely some of the least extreme summer temperatures we’ll experience in our lifetimes.”

Extreme heat this summer may lead to the worst harvest on record, experts said today, echoing what farmers with the Nature Friendly Farming Network called “completely brutal” conditions.

Exceptionally dry and hot weather in 2026 could cut Britain’s cereal and oilseed harvest by 2.5 million tonnes compared with earlier forecasts, the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) said.

Its analysis found this shortfall could cost farmers as much as £390 million, after record-breaking deadly heatwaves in May and June, followed by the driest July on record for England and Wales, plunging the whole of Wales and half of England into drought.

March and April forecasts from European and US agricultural bodies suggested UK harvests were on course to be at or above 10-year averages this year.

But the latest data from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) indicated wheat, barley and oat harvests would be down.

Wheat, half of which has already been harvested, averaged 6.8 tonnes per hectare, which is well below the 10-year average.

Researchers warned that if the provisional yield estimates hold, British cereal and oilseeds this year would overtake 2020 as the worst on record since records began in 1984, with 19.5m tonnes.

Speaking at a conference the same day, Mr Polanski called scenes of extreme conditions such as wildfires across Europe “frankly apocalyptic” and “the biggest threat to this country since the second world war.”

“And yet the response from our government is to pretend none of this is happening,” he said.

“It’s an astonishing dereliction of duty from those whose first responsibility is to keep us safe.”

Alongside a demand for “free, accessible cool space” and financial support for households to heatproof their homes, Mr Polanski urged Mr Burnham to fund wildfire prevention by taxing “the fossil fuel giants who are profiting from fuelling these infernos.”

He added: “To secure our water supply, prevent droughts and protect our food system we need to bring water back into public hands.”