Free voting needed for Climate & Nature Bill parliamentary process

Polling shows the public thinks Labour is no more nature-positive than the Tories as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ‘back not block’ this month’s environmental bill. 

New research published by environmental campaign group Zero Hour points to widespread criticism at the lack of environmental ambition in Labour’s current policies. 

58% of voters believe the party is no more environmentally progressive than the preceding Conservative administrations, with neatly three-quarters [72%] demanding a fair net zero transition which protects UK jobs. Meanwhile, 67% of respondents want to see policy guided by science. 

Looking outward, 60% of Britons see Donald Trump’s re-election to US President as a major threat against efforts to tackle climate change, and 57% say the UK must now step up its own actions in response.

However, within parliament Liberal Democrat MP Dr Roz Savage’s new Climate and Nature Bill, due to be debated on Wednesday 24th January, does not currently have Downing Street’s support. As a result, campaigners are now demanding individual MPs are allowed to act on personal convictions rather than party lines, as happened in the vote for  minister Kim Leadbeater’s Assisted Dying Bill, which passed in November 2024.

‘The Government does not support all the proposals in the Bill and so will not be supporting it. As a Government Whip, I am therefore unable to vote for the Bill or put my name to it,’ said Manchester Withington Labour MP Jeff Smith.

‘The Bill makes the UK a world leader in tackling the climate and nature crisis. That leadership is needed now more than ever with the US set to be taken over once again by a climate denier,’ aid Roz Savage MP, Climate & Nature Bill sponsor. ‘The legislation I am proposing would put net zero plans to a real jury trial through a groundbreaking assembly of ordinary citizens, making sure we save the planet without leaving anyone behind. Parliament is ready to act but we need the Government to back and not block the Bill so MPs can vote with their own hearts this month.’

More on climate change, biodiversity, nature & sustainability: 

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Image: Jake Willett