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Claire O’Neill, a former climate minister, says PM’s move was to ‘try and create political division and dividing lines’The UK government’s decision to weaken some of its climate commitments was a “retrograde step” that will set back vital cross-party action to cut carbon emissions, Claire O’Neill, a former Conservative climate minister has said.O’Neill, who was known as Claire Perry when she served as a...

Exclusive: India seeking to use approach of UK election as bargaining chip and any exemption would be controversialIndia is demanding an exemption from the UK’s planned carbon tax as part of negotiations aiming to finalise a free trade deal before the UK election.India’s negotiating team have spent this week in London in a surprise set of talks to try to overcome the remaining hurdles...

Schemes to replace EU subsidies will not plug gap left by loss of EU subsidies for most farmersFarmers are calling for the government to grant them a universal basic income, saying the post-Brexit agriculture subsidy scheme has left many poorer.Delays to the sustainable farming schemes put in place after the UK left the European Union, to replace the common agricultural policy (CAP), have meant...

Exclusive: party calls for firm to be wound up as it seeks shareholder bailout, higher bills and lower fines Thames Water should be put into special administration by the government and reformed as a public benefit company, the Liberal Democrats have said.Sarah Olney, the Lib Dems’ Treasury spokesperson, will call in a parliamentary debate for the biggest privatised English water company to be wound...

London minister Greg Hands embroiled in congestion and pollution debate with constituents over scheme in election battlegroundWhen the Tory minister Greg Hands criticised a trial scheme in his constituency to block the use of residential roads as rat runs, he might have expected to win some votes and boost his party’s pro-car agenda.Instead, he finds himself embroiled in a charged and divisive debate in...

MEPs react to ‘tragic’ findings revealing UK falling behind EU in key environmental policies since BrexitBrexit divergence from EU destroying UK’s environmental protectionsNorthern Ireland ‘dirty corner of Europe due to lack of governance’Explainer: UK environmental protections dropped since BrexitEuropean lawmakers have lamented the UK’s decision to weaken environmental rules since leaving the EU, after the Guardian revealed it is falling behind in almost every...

Increased flooding blamed on years of government delays over ‘sponge cities’ rulesIncreased sewage pollution, urban flooding and water supply interruptions are the result of a decade of failures by the Conservative ministers, according to water experts who are demanding an independent inquiry into water be set up by the next government.The repeated failure of the Tories to implement rules to create “sponge cities” has...

Parliament returns for election year with a resignation over North Sea drilling and a fight over the Tories’ Rwanda planRishi Sunak is facing a backlash in parliament this week over plans to allow more oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, as Tory troubles pile up on multiple fronts in the run-up to a general election expected this year.MPs return to Westminster on...