Chris Skidmore Resigns

By Paul Homewood

h/t Ian Magness

One down, 149 to go!

A former energy minister has quit over Rishi Sunak’s plans to boost oil and gas fields in the North Sea, ahead of a major Commons battle next week.

Chris Skidmore said he was resigning the Tory whip and stepping down as an MP in protest at the legislation, which will allow new oil and gas licences.

It means the Prime Minister faces yet another difficult by-election. Mr Skidmore’s majority in the seat of Kingswood, in Gloucestershire is 11,220, which looks vulnerable in the wake of recent Labour victories.

In a scathing attack on the Government’s green policies, he said “the future will judge harshly” anyone who backs the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, which is due before the Commons on Monday.

Mr Skidmore said he had to resign because, as a former energy minister, he had signed the UK’s pledge to be net zero by 2050 into law and had also led a government review on how Britain could meet the pledge.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/1/5/rishi-sunak-byelection-conservative-chris-skidmore-quits/

Perhaps the rest of his colleagues in the Conservative Environmental Network should follow suit, and allow their constituents to choose an MP who will put their interests first, instead of the WEF.

This is the same Chris Skidmore who is paid £80k a year by the Emissions Capture Company for advice about the “global energy transition and decarbonisation”!

No conflict of interest there then!