i did a good job as environment minister. i think that on the world stage, the uk on my watch became the world leader on the environment, on climate. that s been recognised by countries all around the world, as we saw when i stepped down. my loyalty, i m a friend, of course, of borisjohnson in the political context. he s not someone i knew before i entered politics. hang on, you re a friend in every context you lent him your home in marbella! hang on a second. my loyalty, as anyone i ve worked with since i was 18 and became a committed environmentalist, will know, anyone in good faith will tell you my loyalty is to these issues. i am deeply concerned by what s happening to the natural world, i ve committed my life to tackling these issues. small time personality politics in the houses of parliament are totally irrelevant in that context. so. stephen, let me finish, because had borisjohnson gone back on 11.6, which at one point i thought he was going to, incidentally, but had he gone
not at all. i think he did have confidence in me doing thisjob, i did a good job as environment minister. i think that on the world stage, the uk on my watch became the world leader on the environment, on climate. that s been recognised by countries all around the world, as we saw when i stepped down. my loyalty, i m a friend, of course, of borisjohnson in the political context. he s not someone i knew before i entered politics. hang on, you re a friend in every context you lent him your home in marbella! hang on a second. my loyalty, as anyone i ve worked with since i was 18 and became a committed environmentalist, will know, anyone in good faith will tell you my loyalty is to these issues. i am deeply concerned by what s happening to the natural world, i ve committed my life to tackling these issues. small time personality politics in the houses of parliament are totally irrelevant in that context. so. stephen, let me finish, because had borisjohnson gone back on 11.6, which at one
point, stephen in every single survey that has ever been conducted, and i ve commissioned a few myself, i ve read many, every single one demonstrates beyond any doubt that the majority of voters, from whichever party they belong to, support greater action on biodiversity, nature on the environment. you re not reading the tea leaves. the conservative home website just did a series of polls just in the last week or two. a0%, they found of tories, this is oppose the net zero target. 33% think global warming is not driven by human activity. but these aren t ordinary people, this is a self selecting, highly partisan. conservatives aren t ordinary people? this is a highly partisan website, with a particular self selecting readership. i m talking about formal, official, professional, independently conducted surveys by those people in a position who know what they re doing. and in every case, including two that came out this morning, in every case, a clear majority of people, even slight
you know that the house of commons works on rules, those rules have to be accepted by everybody. 0k. there is a privileges committee, it is bipartisan, and they reach their conclusions which, in the end, overwhelmingly were accepted by the house of commons. that s the system. but mps are fallible people and they re ordinary human beings. perhaps in some respects, mps are a particular species, i don t know. you cannot expect a fair hearing when almost all of the members of a committee have already told the world what they think the outcome should be before. interesting. you called it a kangaroo court, which is exactly the same phrase that borisjohnson used. the truth is, you are a long standing, very close friend of borisjohnson, he gave you a job in government. basically, you decided that you were going to stick with your mate, and that. not at all. ..is the reason why rishi sunak had no trust or faith in you. not at all. i think he did have confidence in me doing thisjob. i did a good
uninterested, fundamentally uninterested in the environmental challenges that face the uk nation, but the world as a whole. you say, i ve been horrified. this was your resignation letter, ..i ve been horrified as bit by bit, we have abandoned key commitments. our efforts on a wide range of domestic and environmental issues have simply ground to a standstill. and this, tragically, is the case. look, every minister who cares about their brief is always faced with the tension, when things start going the way they don t want them to go do they stay in there, do they continue to push, or do they blow the whistle and resign? and it felt to me that the odds moved pretty dramatically in favour of the latter course, because i was losing too many battles. the reality is, we don t like to praise ourselves in the uk, but the truth is, internationally, there is no more important voice on the international stage when it comes to the environment. notjust climate change, but the environment, t