Hit Pause on Net Zero, Tory Voters Tell Next Prime Minister

A majority of Conservative voters want the next prime minister to pause and review the push for Net Zero, a new poll has revealed. The Telegraph has more.

The findings will pile pressure on leadership hopefuls Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak to toughen their stance on the cost of the green transition.

Both have committed to keep the pledge to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050 but said they will revisit how the UK is set to achieve it.

A new poll by YouGov found 59% of Tory voters want Net Zero frozen, which rises to 70% when don’t knows are excluded.

In contrast, only 30% of Labour and Lib Dem backers would like to see the climate target suspended by the next prime minister.

The survey showed that support for a review of the green policy is strongest among over-65s, almost one in six of whom are in favour.

Overall, the public are narrowly in favour of such a move by 52% to 48% when those who expressed no opinion are excluded.

Working-class voters are more likely to be sceptical of environmental targets than middle-class people, the results of the poll show.

They also reveal that backing for a rethink is highest in the Midlands and Wales and lowest in London and Scotland.

Ms. Truss, the frontrunner in the Tory leadership race, has pledged to temporarily scrap green levies on energy bills to help with the cost of living crisis.

The Foreign Secretary has said she will look again at how Net Zero is delivered, insisting “what I don’t want to see is ordinary households penalised”.

Mr. Sunak has pledged to build more offshore wind farms but has also insisted hitting green targets “can’t mean neglecting our energy security”.

The YouGov survey of 1,797 Britons was carried out last Wednesday and Thursday, and was commissioned by Net Zero sceptic group CAR26.

It comes after a separate study by the pollster found only four per cent of Tory members think the green policy should be a top policy priority.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: After the Daily Sceptic revealed yesterday that the Government had awarded a £70 billion contract to a company to advise on Net Zero Jolyon Maughan announced the Good Law Project will be investigating. However, according to Guido Fawkes, there’s nothing to see here.