Andy Burnham has been accused of a “climate COP out” over claims he is watering down the government’s green commitments ahead of an eco summit.
The prime minister will fly to Antalya in Turkey for the COP 31 climate summit on Wednesday.
But it has been reported that Burnham’s deputy, Louise Haigh, will announce within days that the government is cutting its electric vehicle targets by around a quarter.
Under a policy introduced by the previous Tory government, 80% of new cars and vans should be electric by 2030, with all new petrol and diesel vehicles banned by 2035.
A consultation on the plans is currently underway, and Burnham insisted on Monday that “no decision” has been made on whether they should be watered down.
Labour also announced last month that it was allowing new drilling to take place at the Jackdaw gas field in the North Sea.
Meanwhile, a decision on whether to allow drilling to take place at the Rosebank oilfield near Shetland is due before the end of the year.
The Green Party have published a dossier detailing the PM’s “climate COP-outs” as he prepares to fly to the summit.
Party leader Zack Polanski said: “After a summer of heat-related deaths, and the hottest year on record, this prime minister is betraying our future on climate and the environment.
“This prime minister has slowed progress when we needed to go fast, and surrendered to fossil fuel firms when he needed to take a stand.
“We can’t even call this continuity Starmer. It’s far worse than that, a prime minister siding with the polluters when he needed to be siding with the people.”
But the PM’s spokesman denied the government was diluting its commitment to tackling climate change and delivering net zero by 2050.
He said: “The prime minister is going to COP to continue to drive forward progress on tackling climate change, and his attendance sends a clear message that the UK remains a climate leader.
“We have one of the world’s most ambitious plans to transition away from fossil fuels and electrify our economy. The prime minister looks forward to championing that on the world stage.”
He added: “The government is fully behind the zero emissions vehicle mandate, and no decisions have been taken yet.
“We are sticking to our commitment of phasing out new cars that run only on petrol and diesel by 2030, very new car and van will be zero emission by 2035, and our legally binding net zero target – none of that is changing.”
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