Tory MP Philip Davies brands PM’s environmental push ‘utterly futile virtue signalling’

The last Tory MP willing to tell Boris Johnson the truth about his Net Zero plans? Philip Davies brands PM’s environmental push ‘utterly futile virtue signalling’ ahead of Cop26 summit – as even PM admits progress at global event is ‘touch and go’

  • Outspoken rightwinger made the remark in a letter to one of his constituents 
  • PM has set goal of making the UK net zero in terms of carbon emissions by 2050 
  • The Prime Minister will welcome world leaders to Glasgow for Cop26 next week 
  • But yesterday he admitted it was ‘touch and go’ whether key goals would be met


Boris Johnson‘s environmental plan to make the UK ‘net zero’ has been branded ‘utterly futile, virtue signalling gesture politics’ by one of his own backbenchers.

Outspoken rightwinger Philip Davies made the remark in a letter to one of his constituents in Yorkshire this week, ahead of the Cop26 UN summit in Glasgow

Mr Johnson yesterday admitted he fears the major international climate change summit he will host from Sunday could fail to make the progress needed. 

The PM has made a raft of green announcements in recent weeks and months, with an over-arching goal of making the UK net zero in terms of carbon emissions by 2050.

But in the letter sent last week Shipley MP Mr Davies said the pledge ‘would make no difference at all to global temperatures – particularly when countries like China, India and emerging economies in Africa are going to be increasing their carbon emissions each year by more than our entire total’.

He added:  ‘Such action would be utterly futile, virtue signalling gesture politics which would also bankrupt the country along with many families.’

Serial rebel Philip Davies made the remark in a letter to one of his constituents in Yorkshire this week, ahead of the Cop26 UN summit in Glasgow.

Mr Johnson yesterday admitted he fears the major international climate change summit he will host from Sunday could fail to make the progress needed.

Mr Johnson yesterday admitted he fears the major international climate change summit he will host from Sunday could fail to make the progress needed.

In the letter sent last week Shipley MP Mr Davies said the pledge 'would make no difference at all to global temperatures - particularly when countries like China, India and emerging economies in Africa are going to be increasing their carbon emissions each year by more than our entire total'

In the letter sent last week Shipley MP Mr Davies said the pledge ‘would make no difference at all to global temperatures – particularly when countries like China, India and emerging economies in Africa are going to be increasing their carbon emissions each year by more than our entire total’

$100bn green pledge to be delivered three years late 

Wealthy nations will not deliver a long-promised 100 billion dollars a year in climate finance for poor countries until 2023, three years late, a report has found.

Public and private finance totalling 100 US billion dollars (£72 billion) a year by 2020 – to help poor countries develop cleanly and cope with the impacts of global warming – was first promised at troubled UN talks in Copenhagen in 2009.

The pledge, which was extended in 2015 to run through to 2025, has become a totemic figure for international climate action to support countries which have done least to contribute to the crisis but are most vulnerable to its impacts.

Delivering finance has been one of the key aims for the UK as host of the latest round of UN climate talks which start in Glasgow in less than a week, with Cop26 president Alok Sharma describing it as “a matter of trust”.

Analysis shows that while developed countries have scaled up climate finance flows in the last decade, the 100 billion dollar target is unlikely to have been met in 2020, and is also likely to fall short in 2021 and 2022. 

‘That is money the country and many of my constituents can ill afford; especially when the actions of other countries will make it utterly futile,’ added Mr Davies, in a letter first reported by Yorkshire Live.

‘It would be much more sensible to spend money on adapting to changes in the climate rather than an unrealistic view that we are going to change the world’s climate.

‘That change in the world’s climate is just not going to happen – anyone who thinks every country in the world is going to take these measures are in cloud cuckoo land.’

Mr Davies told the website: ‘A lot of my constituents will agree with what I have said.’

The Prime Minister will welcome world leaders to Glasgow for the United Nations Cop26 summit but said it was ‘touch and go’ whether key goals would be met.

‘We need as many people as possible to go to net zero so that they are not producing too much carbon dioxide by the middle of the century,’ he said.

‘Now, I think it can be done. It’s going to be very, very tough, this summit.

‘And I’m very worried, because it might go wrong and we might not get the agreements that we need. It’s touch and go.’

Mr Johnson said ‘peer pressure’ at the UN summit could force some nations into action.

But with some major world leaders including China’s Xi Jinping expected to stay away due to the state of the coronavirus pandemic the chances of that tactic being a success may be limited.

Mr Johnson acknowledged ‘it’s very, very far from clear that we will get the progress that we need’ although he praised Australia for the ‘heroic’ decision to commit to net zero by 2050.

Downing Street said Mr Johnson was setting out the ‘realistic situation’ about the chances of Cop26 being a success.

Mr Davies is married to fellow Tory MP Esther McVey

Mr Davies is married to fellow Tory MP Esther McVey

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