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Corbyn labels Johnson a climate sceptic
The Labour leader demanded the government stop ‘failing so spectacularly to measure up to the scale of the climate crisis’
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson (left) and Sir David Attenborough at the launch of the next COP26 UN Climate Summit at the Science Museum, London

JEREMY CORBYN labelled PM Boris Johnson a climate sceptic today, demanding the government stop “failing so spectacularly” to take on the environmental crisis.

The Labour leader went on the offensive at Prime Minister’s questions today ahead of the scheduled United Nations COP26 climate summit, which is set to take place later this year in Glasgow.

Mr Corbyn said: “We should have clear actions and an agreed plan and a roadmap for the year of action.

“But we do not. So why is the Prime Minister failing so spectacularly to measure up to the scale of the climate crisis that this country and, indeed, this planet, is facing?”

Mr Johnson dismissed Mr Corbyn’s words as “hot air,” claiming that the British government is “delivering” on climate-change promises and ensuring that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced.

Mr Corbyn responded that Britain is not meeting its globally agreed targets and urged the PM to recognise that.

He also drew attention to what he called the PM’s “climate-sceptic” past, reminding Mr Johnson that he had claimed the threats posed to the climate by man-made global warming were “without foundation” and a “primitive fear.”

Tensions have already risen over November’s summit with the allegation that the PM refused to give Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon any formal or official role at the event.

The government’s former clean-growth minister Claire O’Neill, who Mr Johnson sacked ahead of preparations for COP26, said that the PM’s handling of climate crisis is a “failure of global vision and leadership.”

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