Theresa Villiers

Theresa Villiers was the Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet from 2005 to 2024, and environment secretary from 2019 to 2020.

Kemi Badenoch must not drop net zero

Giorgia Meloni had it right. ‘There is nothing,’ the Italian prime minister said in 2022, ‘more right-wing than ecology. The right loves the environment because it loves the land, the identity, the homeland.’ Like centre-right parties across Europe, Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party is committed to net zero. While Kemi Badenoch was correct in her recent speech to challenge the way we forge a path to clean energy, I hope that the policy commission she has launched will recommend keeping the goal of ending the UK’s contribution to harmful planet warming. Throughout the long history of the Conservative party, we have stood for the principle of protecting the institutions and ways of life that we value for future generations to enjoy.