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Lord Zac Goldsmith quit as a UK environment minister on Friday, a day after being censured by a senior group of MPs, but took the chance to lambast prime minister Rishi Sunak for being “uninterested” in green issues.
In a strongly worded letter to Sunak, Goldsmith said he had been “horrified” by the government’s decision to abandon a range of environmental commitments “domestically and on the world stage”.
“You are simply uninterested [in the environment],” wrote Goldsmith, adding: “This government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.”
Sunak replied by hinting he might have sacked Goldsmith in any event. The minister failed to apologise this week for criticising the House of Commons privileges committee, which was probing whether Boris Johnson lied to MPs over Downing Street parties during Covid-19 restrictions.
Goldsmith, a close friend of Johnson, was among eight Conservative politicians — including former cabinet ministers Dame Priti Patel and Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg — censured for “contempt of parliament” and disparaging the investigation into the partygate scandal.
“I accept your resignation,” Sunak wrote. “You were asked to apologise for your comments about the privileges committee as we felt they were incompatible with your position as a minister of the crown. You have decided to take a different course.”
Downing Street said questions about whether Sunak was about to sack Goldsmith were “hypothetical”, while the outgoing minister insisted he had been mulling quitting for some time.
Goldsmith, made a peer by Johnson after losing his Richmond Park seat to the Liberal Democrats in the 2019 general election, was called out for publicising a tweet that described the cross-party committee as a “witch hunt” and “kangaroo court”.
He added when retweeting the comments: “There was only ever going to be one outcome and the evidence was totally irrelevant to it.” On Friday Goldsmith acknowledged that as a serving minister he should not have commented publicly on the privileges committee’s work.
The MPs ultimately found that Johnson had deliberately misled parliament about the scandal, lied to them and breached confidence.
Goldsmith made no allusion to the committee’s findings in his resignation letter, referring only to Sunak’s lack of interest in his climate work.
He criticised the prime minister for “effectively abandon[ing]” a pledge to spend £11.6bn of the aid budget over five years on the climate and environment, describing it as one of the government’s “most widely reported and solemn promises”.
“Only last week, you seemingly chose to attend the party of a media baron rather than attend a critically important environmental summit in Paris,” he wrote, referring to a party hosted by Rupert Murdoch.
“I will never understand how, with all the knowledge we now have about our fundamental reliance on the natural world and the speed with which we are destroying it, anyone can be uninterested,” added Goldsmith. “But even if this existential challenge leaves you personally unmoved, there is a world of people who do care very much. And you will need their votes.”
Johnson and Goldsmith were criticised by opposition MPs in 2021 after it emerged that the then prime minister had holidayed for free in Goldsmith’s Spanish villa without declaring the trip’s monetary value.
