UK

A majority of Conservative Party members support Britain’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050, despite Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to scrap landmark climate legislation if the Tories win the next election. In a survey of Tory members, by Professor Tim Bale at Queen Mary University of London, 51 per cent said they back the UK’s net zero plans, while 45 per cent said they were opposed. Among the general public, 69 per cent said they support the net zero target, while just 20 per cent said they were opposed to it.A row over net zero could overshadow the Tory conference in Manchester More

In a country that ranks poorly internationally for gender equality, the new president of Japan’s long-governing Liberal Democrats, and likely next prime minister, is an ultra-conservative star of a male-dominated party that critics call an obstacle to women’s advancement.Sanae Takaichi, 64. admires former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and is a proponent of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s conservative vision for Japan. Takaichi is the first female president of Japan’s predominantly male ruling party that has dominated Japan’s postwar politics almost without interruption. First elected to parliament from her hometown of Nara in 1993, she has served in key party and government posts, including minister of economic security, internal affairs and gender equality. Female lawmakers in the conservative Liberal Democratic Party who were given limited ministerial posts have often been shunned as soon as they spoke up about diversity and gender equality. Takaichi has stuck with old-fashioned views favored by male party heavyweights.Women comprise only about 15% of Japan’s lower house, the more powerful of the two parliamentary chambers. Only two of Japan’s 47 prefectural governors are women.A drummer in a heavy-metal band and a motorbike rider as a student, Takaichi has called for a stronger military, more fiscal spending for growth, promotion of nuclear fusion, cybersecurity and tougher policies on immigration. She vowed to drastically increase female ministers in her government. But experts say she might actually set back women’s advancement because as leader she would have to show loyalty to influential male heavyweights. If not she risks a short-lived leadership. Takaichi has backed the LDP policy of having women serve in their traditional roles of being good mothers and wives. But she also recently acknowledged her struggles with menopausal symptoms and stressed the need to educate men about female health to help women at school and work.Takaichi supports the imperial family’s male-only succession, opposes same-sex marriage and a revision to the 19th century civil law that would allow separate surnames for married couples so that women don’t get pressured into abandoning theirs.She is a wartime history revisionist and China hawk. She regularly visits Yasukuni Shrine, which Japan’s neighbors consider a symbol of militarism, though she has declined to say what she would do as prime minister. Political watchers say her revisionist views of Japan’s wartime history may complicate ties with Beijing and Seoul.Her hawkish stance is also a worry for the LDP’s longtime partnership with Komeito, a Buddhist-backed moderate party. While she has said the current coalition is crucial for her party, she says she is open to working with far-right groups. More

More than 180 constituencies are threatened by Reform UK’s controversial pro-fracking agenda, new research has revealed.The analysis by Friends of the Earth this week identifies the parliamentary areas that could be vulnerable to development for fracking if Nigel Farage’s party were to get into government.A total of 187 constituencies are partially or totally within areas the British Geological Society has labelled ‘Shale Prospective Areas’ – locales where specific geologic conditions exist that could make fracking viable – according to the environmental justice organisation.Of these constituencies, it found that 141 are existing Labour seats, 25 are Conservative, 15 are held by the Liberal Democrats and 2 by Reform, with swathes of Scotland, the North of England, the Midlands and the South potentially at risk. MPs, including former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, Reform’s Lee Anderson and energy secretary Ed Miliband, are among those whose constituencies could be affected.The Independent has now mapped out the research, showing the proportion of shale areas in each constituency, as well as the political party of the local MP.Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas from shale rock by pumping liquids deep underground at high pressures to release the gas trapped inside.There is a de facto ban on fracking in the UK, originally brought in six years ago. The government ended its support for fracking in 2019 after an Oil and Gas Authority report found it was not possible to accurately predict the probability of tremors associated with the practice.But Reform has called for more extraction of oil and gas, pledging to “unlock Britain’s vast energy treasure of oil and gas to slash energy bills, beat the cost-of-living crisis and unleash real economic growth”.Last month, YouGov polling revealed the unpopularity of fracking with the public, with twice as many people opposing the practice as supporting it. This runs parallel to the consistent local opposition that communities facing the threat of fracking have mounted against developments over many years, which – along with tremors at Cuadrilla’s Preston New Road site – eventually led to the moratorium in 2019.The analysis by Friends of the Earth this week identifies the parliamentary areas that could be vulnerable to development for fracking if Nigel Farage’s party were to get into government More

Baroness Michelle Mone has hit out at Kemi Badenoch and said she has no wish to return to the Lords as a Conservative peer after a company linked to her was ordered to repay millions of pounds for breaching a Covid-19 PPE contract.On Wednesday, PPE Medpro was ordered to pay back the government nearly £122 million. In response, several high-profile politicians have called for Lady Mone to relinquish her seat in the Lords, with Tory leader Ms Badenoch saying she had brought “embarrassment and shame to the party”, and should have the “book thrown at her”.Entrepreneur Michelle Mone (Archive/PA) More

Zack Polanski has vowed to defend Britain from a descent into authoritarianism under Sir Keir Starmer, warning the prime minister that “our rights and our liberties are not negotiable”. In his first conference speech as Green Party leader, the left-wing firebrand attacked Sir Keir over digital IDs, the proscription of the Palestine Action protest group and Labour’s decision to ban a handful of journalists from its own conference in Liverpool.“This country has a proud tradition of protecting civil liberties – but once again a Labour government is cracking down on our rights,” he warned.Mr Polanski said: “From terrorist proscription against protesters, to banning journalists from their conference, to diving into a rushed, evidence-free plan for digital IDs that are likely to discriminate against minorities.“The alarm bells of authoritarianism are now ringing.” And he said: “It’s down to us, the Green Party, to take a stand and say that our rights and our liberties are not negotiable, and we will do everything in our power to protect both our privacy and defend our juries.” Mr Polanski said the proscription of Palestine Action, which is planning another protest in London on Saturday despite the threat of arrest against those who support it, “must be withdrawn”. It comes after the home secretary called for pro-Gaza demonstrations to be cancelled in the wake of Thursday’s terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester.Shabana Mahmood urged those considering attending protests in the wake of the tragedy to “show some humanity”. Polanski giving his first conference speech as leader of the Green Party on Friday More

Shabana Mahmood has called on pro-Gaza demonstrators to stop protesting in the wake of the terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester. The home secretary condemned a protest that took place in Manchester in the wake of the stabbing, calling on those who attended to “show some humanity”. “I think some humanity could have been shown. I am disappointed that humanity and solidarity wasn’t shown to our Jewish community,” she told Sky News. Ms Mahmood added: “I was very disappointed to see those protests go ahead last night. I think that behaviour is fundamentally un-British. I think it’s dishonourable. I would have wanted those individuals to just take a step back. “The issues that are driving those protests have been going on now for some time. They don’t look like they’re going to come to an end any day soon. They could have stepped back and just given a community that has suffered deep loss just a day or two to process what has happened, and to carry on with a grieving process.” Ahead of a visit to Manchester, chief rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said this is a “very dark time”, as he referred to an “unrelenting wave of hatred against Jews”.Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Sir Ephraim said: “Right now, our hearts are shattered. What transpired yesterday was an awful blow to us, something which actually we were fearing might happen because of the build-up to this action.The home secretary called on pro-Gaza demonstrators to cancel protests More

Ed Miliband has lashed out at Kemi Badenoch, branding the Tory leader a “Reform tribute act” over her decision to ditch net zero policies.The energy secretary’s attack comes after Ms Badenoch announced that the Conservatives would no longer pursue net zero if she won power again.Going further than even some of her close allies predicted, she revealed she would even repeal the landmark Climate Change Act 2008 and other legislation, promoting criticism from Conservative grandees – including Theresa May – who said it would be a “catastrophic mistake”. Ms Badenoch claimed that her party still wants to leave “a cleaner environment for our children” but argued “Labour’s laws tied us in red tape, loaded us with costs, and did nothing to cut global emissions”.Energy Secretary Ed Miliband More

Theresa May has condemned Kemi Badenoch’s pledge to scrap landmark climate legislation if the Tories win the next election, warning it would be a “catastrophic mistake”. The former prime minister dubbed the plans a “retrograde” step that ended 17 years of consensus on the issue of climate change between mainstream political parties and the scientific community. Her comments came after the Tories announced plans to repeal the Climate Change Act, which was brought in by the last Labour government in 2008 and committed the UK to cut climate emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, with five-yearly carbon budgets to keep the country on track towards the goal.Under May’s premiership, the Conservatives increased the ambition of the act to cut greenhouse gases to zero overall, known as “net zero”, by 2050.Responding to the announcement, Baroness May said: “For nearly two decades, the United Kingdom has led the way in tackling climate change, initially with the Climate Change Act in 2008 and again in 2019 when we became the first G7 country to legislate to get to Net Zero by 2050.“To row back now would be a catastrophic mistake for while that consensus is being tested, the science remains the same. The harms are undeniable. “We owe it to our children and grandchildren to ensure we protect the planet for their futures and that means giving business the reassurance it needs to find the solutions for the very grave challenges we face.“Ultimately, it is innovation and investment that will take us forward, but that can only be achieved by providing consistency and showing a clear determination to stick to the long-term path of reducing emissions, achieving Net Zero and protecting our planet for future generations.”It came after former Tory minister Alok Sharma warned the plans would risk future investment and jobs in the UK. Lord Sharma, who is a former Cop26 president and served as business, energy and industrial strategy secretary under Boris Johnson, urged his party not to “squander” its legacy of climate progress “for the sake of short-term political expediency”.“Thanks to the strong and consistent commitment of the previous Conservative government to climate action and net zero, the UK attracted many tens of billions of pounds of private sector investment and accompanying jobs.Theresa May making a speech at COP26 in Glasgow in 2021 More