UNIVERSAL derision followed Tory leader Kemi Badenoch’s announcement of a plan to scrap the Climate Change Act, which enshrines emissions reduction targets in law.

She vowed that her party would “scrap the failed targets” and replace the legislation with an energy strategy that puts “cheap and reliable energy as the foundation for economic growth first.”

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This desperate policy from Kemi Badenoch, if ever implemented, would be an economic disaster and a total betrayal of future generations.

“The Conservatives would now scrap a framework that businesses campaigned for in the first place and has ensured tens of billions of pounds of investment in homegrown British energy since it was passed by a Labour government with Conservative support 17 years ago.

“This anti-jobs, anti-worker, anti-young people lurch is nothing more than a pathetic attempt at a culture war which the British people do not want.”

Big business was similarly unimpressed by Ms Badenoch’s latest rightward lurch.

Confederation of British Industry director-general Rain Newton-Smith said: “The scientific reality of climate change makes action from both government and business imperative.

“Scrapping the Climate Change Act would be a backwards step in achieving our shared objectives of reaching economic growth, boosting energy security, protecting our environment and making life healthier for future generations.”

Even a Tory peer joined the chorus, with Theresa May's former chief of staff Gavin Barwell calling the announcement “both bad policy and bad politics” and noting that "polling shows Conservative voters support the net-zero target.

“There is no future for the Conservative Party in being a Reform tribute act,” he added.

Green MP Carla Denyer said: “Kemi Badenoch is taking the Conservatives even further down the path to irrelevance with this through-the-looking-glass idea.

“It’s embarrassing that Badenoch is ready to trash the progress this country has made towards a safe and healthy future, even under Conservative governments, just to satisfy the demands of her party’s donors in the fossil fuel industry.”

For the Liberal Democrats, energy spokeswoman Pippa Heylings said: “Investing in renewables is the greatest economic growth opportunity in this century and will protect the planet for future generations.

“The Conservatives’ refusal to acknowledge this, and their failures, shows that they are only interested in following Farage, not leading Britain.”

Scrapping the Act would remove the need to meet carbon emission ceilings, set over five-year periods.