Rishi Sunak has announced a major policy shift, rowing back on some of the government’s net zero policies that impose a direct cost on consumers, as the Conservatives attempt to create a dividing line with Labour before the next election.
As our political correspondent Kiran Stacey tells Nosheen Iqbal on a chaotic day in Westminster, the plans amount to delaying a ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars and watering down the phasing out of gas boilers. Sunak also dropped proposals for new energy-efficiency targets for private rented homes.
The speech on Wednesday was hastily brought forward after the plans began to leak on Tuesday evening. Opposition politicians and some Conservative backbenchers criticised the plans, which were met with dismay among business leaders concerned that the new policy was at odds with what ministers had told the energy sector.
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