LONDON — Minister Zac Goldsmith quit the British government Friday with a stinging attack on Rishi Sunak’s environmental record.
But his exit comes a day after MPs took him to task for sticking up for Boris Johnson — and it’s already kicked off a bitter row with No.10 Downing Street.
In a highly-critical letter to the U.K. leader, the environment minister — who once ran for London mayor and was placed in the House of Lords by Johnson — said “this government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.”
The dramatic exit comes after Goldsmith, a longstanding environmentalist, was criticized by a cross-party committee for his recent role in backing Johnson.
The privileges committee argued Thursday that allies of the former prime minister, including Goldsmith, had been part of a “coordinated campaign to interfere with” its work investigating Johnson’s conduct.
Goldsmith was criticized for retweeting a social media post branding the committee — investigating whether Johnson misled parliament over coronavirus rule-breaches by government staff — a “kangaroo court.”
Downing Street was quick to highlight that row Friday, claiming that it had asked Goldsmith to say sorry.
A terse letter from Sunak to Goldsmith, published by No.10, said the minister had been “asked to apologize for your comments about the privileges committee as we felt they were incompatible” with a government job. “You have decided to take a different course,” said Sunak.
That prompted an immediate pushback from Goldsmith.
Speaking to the BBC later, the-ex minister said he was “happy to apologise for publicly sharing my views” on the committee’s work, and acknowledged he “shouldn’t have commented publicly.”
But he added: “No. 10 asked me to acknowledge that, and made clear that there was no question of my being ‘sacked’ if I did so. I was — and am — happy to do so. My decision to step down has been a long time coming.”
It marks the latest bad blood between Sunak and Johnson’s allies. Sunak quit Johnson’s government last year, helping precipitate his downfall, and has since publicly sparred with his Tory predecessor on a host of issues.
Climate warning
Goldsmith’s own letter is peppered with attacks on the government’s environmental record, with the outgoing minister saying that, under Sunak, the U.K. had “visibly stepped off the world stage and withdrawn our leadership on climate and nature.”
He added: “Too often we are simply absent from key international fora. Only last week you seemingly chose to attend the party of a media baron rather than attend a critically important environment summit in Paris that ordinarily the U.K. would have co-led.”
Sunak rejected those charges — which are by no means exclusive to Goldsmith — by reeling off achievements on the net-zero agenda. He told a press conference in No.10 at lunch time that the U.K. had “played a leading role globally” on the fight to reduce carbon emissions. His own climate advisers, who published a gloomy assessment this week, aren’t so sure.
Goldsmith was the MP for Richmond Park from 2010 to 2019, when he was defeated by Liberal Democrat candidate Sarah Olney. He kept a ministerial job, however, after Johnson handed him a place in the U.K.’s unelected House of Lords.
His exit was swiftly lamented by another Johnson ally Friday. Nadine Dorries — also criticized by the privileges committee probe — said Goldsmith’s “record of achievement, the depth of his knowledge, his passion re the environment is second to none.”
She added in a tweet: “We’ve just lost the most able minister for the environment any government would be lucky and proud to have. This loss is beyond party politics. It’s huge.”
The opposition Labour Party seized on the latest Conservative drama, with Shadow Environment Secretary Jim McMahon saying the resignation showed Sunak’s “weakness.”
“This ‘simply uninterested’ prime minister can’t lead his own team, never mind lead the country,” McMahon added in a statement.
This developing story has been updated with further reporting.