Rishi Sunak’s approval rating on environment falls to record low

Public approval of the government's handling of the environment has reached a new low after Rishi Sunak was accused of backsliding on the climate emergency and clean air.

The prime minister on Wednesday said his record on green issues had been "fantastic" but a poll by YouGov released the same day shows his government now has a net approval rating of -37 on the issue – a new low.

It comes after Mr Sunak said he would green-light more than 100 oil and gas drilling licences and signalled that policies like low traffic neighbourhoods and 20mph speed limits could be in danger.

Right-wing conservatives have also dominated headlines this week with calls to ditch or delay net zero pledges like a ban on new gas boilers and petrol cars.

The YouGov survey conducted between 29 and 31 July shows that now just 27 per cent of people think the government is handling the environment well, with 63 per cent saying badly and 10 per cent saying they don't know.

"Following a week of trying to row back on green policies, the government’s handling of the environment has received its lowest rating since tracking began in mid-2019, a net score of -37," YouGov's head of data journalism Matthew Smith said.

Responding on Wednesday to implied criticism from the UN climate bodies over the direction of government, policy Mr Sunak told LBC radio: "We should not take any lectures from anybody about our record. Our record is fantastic. It's better than everyone else's."

Mr Sunak told the broadcaster that he cared about Britain reaching the target of net zero by 2050, and that he wanted to leave the environment and the climate in a better state for his children.

But more than 50 green groups including the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the National Trust, the Green Alliance and WWF UK this week warned the government against “backsliding”, adding: “We will not stand by whilst politicians use the environment as a political football.”

Energy secretary Grant Shapps on Wednesday also defended the government’s record told broadcaster GB News that the Government has been “moving very fast” on renewable energy.

“Everyone supports this country's transition to net zero, but you cannot get there by telling people we're simply going to stop using oil and gas," he told the broadcaster.

“The only way to do that would be to tell people don't put your gas boiler on, don't drive a petrol car, and do that almost instantaneously.

“Unless you do that, what you're really saying is, we're not going to dig our own oil and gas, we'll import it instead and that's basically Labour's policy on this.”