Craig Mackinlay accuses PM of ‘shameful acceptance of decline’ and urges him to end damaging climate policies

Rishi Sunak is putting Britain on a “path to ruin” with his pursuit of net zero targets, the leader of an influential Tory group has warned.

Craig Mackinlay accused the Prime Minister of overseeing a “shameful acceptance of decline” in the name of the green agenda. The Telegraph has the story.

The chairman of the 50-strong net zero scrutiny group urged him to “wake up” and roll back damaging climate policies before it is too late.

His intervention, in an article for The Telegraph, comes as Mr Sunak faces pressure from restless backbenchers on a number of fronts.

The Prime Minister has suffered several bruising rebellions on net zero, including one of the biggest of his premiership on electrical vehicle (EV) quotas.

He is set to face another mutiny within the next few weeks over plans to fine boiler companies that do not hit sales targets for heat pumps.

Mr Mackinlay said the news that Grangemouth Refinery, in Falkirk, will close next year was the latest sign that green targets were backfiring.

Bosses at the plant – one of only six remaining in the UK – have announced it will be turned into an import terminal for gas with 400 jobs being lost.

“The rush to net zero presents a severe threat to industries that have long been the lifeblood of our economy,” Mr Mackinlay wrote.

“This shameful acceptance of decline from a Conservative government would previously have been unthinkable.

“We cannot burden industries with excessive costs that foreign competitors avoid, whilst expecting them to continue operating in the UK.

“Nor can we recklessly pursue a transition to EVs by diktat, which ordinary consumers do not want, on the chimera of ‘green jobs’ tomorrow at the expense of real jobs today.

“Do we continue down this path to ruin? Or do we finally wake up and prioritise true British energy security?”

It is a rare recent intervention by Mr Mackinlay, who is recovering after suffering from sepsis last year, which led to him being put into an induced coma.

He said the pursuit of climate targets has seen Britain “lumber ourselves with some of the world’s highest power costs whilst subsidising intermittent renewables”.

“Our attitude towards energy security has bordered on dangerous indifference,” he added, pointing to windfall taxes and the refusal to allow fracking.

Mr Mackinlay added that the Grangemouth closure would mean importing more fuel from abroad, “supporting foreign jobs whilst further hammering the UK’s balance of payments”.

He added that the owners of the refinery had pointed to a decline in demand for oil-based fuels like petrol as one of the reasons for the closure.

“The ideological obsession for battery vehicles at all costs can therefore be directly tied to the survival of British industry,” he wrote.

Read the full story here.