'HONEST' RISHI: NATION WON'T AND CAN'T PAY NET ZERO BILL

RISHI Sunak has pushed back green policies that hard-up voters cannot afford in the cost-of-living crisis.

- Steph Spyro

He delayed a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035 and added nine years to the phasing-out of new gas boilers.

Pledging to "honest" in changing be the way of reaching net zero emissions by 2050, the PM insisted that the UK was already ahead of other countries and could not impose "unacceptable costs" on the public. Mr Sunak said in a speech at Downing Street yesterday: "The risk here to those of us who care about reaching net zero, as I do, is simple - if we continue down this path we risk losing the consent of the British people.

"And the resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies but against the wider mission itself, meaning we might never achieve our goal. That's why we have to do things differently."

Mr Sunak said that the green shake-up would save the average family up to £15,000.

His widely-expected announcements were both welcomed and attacked within the Tory Party.

Tory environmentalist Lord Zac Goldsmith even went so far as to demand a General Election over the "economically and ecologically illiterate decision" to change tack.

But party backing for Mr Sunak came from Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg who served in Boris Johnson's Cabinet. He called the ex-Premier, who yesterday criticised the changes, a "net zero zealot".

The Tories' holding on to Mr Johnson's former Uxbridge and South Ruislip seat after a campaign against the growth of the ultra low emission zone in London, had bolstered some party members' calls for green policies to be binned.