Badenoch to ditch Tory party's commitment to net zero by 2050

Kemi Badenoch is dropping her party's commitment to reaching net zero by 2050 as she launches the Conservatives' widest policy review in a generation.

- Kiran Stacey

The Tory leader will argue in a speech today that hitting Britain's legally binding climate target is "impossible", abandoning one of the most significant policies enacted by her predecessor Theresa May.

The net zero commitment was emblematic of the cross-party consensus on tackling climate change, which Badenoch has promised to unpick as part of her determination to move on from the Tories' general election defeat last year.

"We've got to stop pretending to the next generation," she will say. "We've got to stop government by press release. It's exactly the reason that the political class has lost trust. The only way that we can regain it is to tell the unvarnished truth - net zero by 2050 is impossible."

She will add: "The current policies the UK is implementing are largely failing to do this whilst, at the same time, driving up the cost of energy. We're falling between two stools - too high costs and too little progress."

News of the announcement triggered anger among environmentalists in her own party.

Sam Hall, the director of the Conservative Environment Network, said: "It is a mistake for Kemi Badenoch to have jumped the gun on her own policy review and decided net zero isn't possible by 2050.