Tory MP Chris Skidmore quits with attack on UK climate policy

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Former Tory minister Chris Skidmore is quitting as an MP in protest at the UK government’s plans to drill for more North Sea oil, in a move that leaves the Conservatives facing another difficult by-election.

Skidmore, who had already announced that he would not stand in the next election, said he was now quitting “as soon as possible” as MP for Kingswood in Gloucestershire and leaving the Tory party. 

In his resignation letter he said it was “a tragedy that the UK has been allowed to lose its climate leadership” under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. 

Last summer, Sunak edged away from some crucial climate commitments by delaying plans to phase out sales of gas boilers and impose curbs on petrol and diesel cars, although he pledged to keep the wider 2050 Net Zero target. 

Skidmore said he was quitting in protest at the government’s Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which will be introduced in the House of Commons next week. The legislation requires the North Sea regulator to hold annual licensing rounds for drilling for oil and gas.

“I cannot vote for the bill next week. The future will judge harshly those that do.”

Skidmore, who was energy minister when the British government signed its 2050 commitment into law, led a report into net zero for the government that was published in January 2023. 

In his resignation letter he said the new law would send a “global signal that the UK is rowing ever further back from its climate commitments”. 

There was no case for increasing fossil fuel production at a time when there was “exponential” growth occurring in renewable and clean power, he argued. 

Skidmore added that he could no longer “condone” the government as it edged away from its previous climate policies.

“To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate a status quo that cannot be sustained. I am…