50+ Tory Candidates No-Shows @ Climate Debates, Including Former Health, Environment Ministers
A former environment secretary is one of dozens of prospective Conservative Party MPs who have declined to discuss their plans for tackling climate change with constituents at local pre-election debates. Two weeks after DeSmog first revealed that Conservative candidates were missing from climate hustings across the country, campaign group Extinction Rebellion has compiled a list of 50 that it said had declined invitations to appear, in addition to 13 that did not appear at one event that covered the whole of the Black Country.
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A number of hustings organisers replaced absent candidates with bowls full of ice that melted as the evening progressed. One of those bowls was Owen Paterson, former Environment Secretary and incumbent Conservative MP for North Shropshire. Paterson was sacked by former prime minister David Cameron for fear his view that climate change was not a serious problem would cost the Conservative party votes in the 2015 general election. In 2014, Paterson gave the annual lecture for the UK’s premier climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). It later emerged that his speech was written by hereditary peer and GWPF advisor Matt Ridley, who is Paterson’s brother-in-law.
Also represented by a melting bowl of ice was former health minister Stephen Hammond, Conservative candidate for Wimbledon. Hammond told DeSmog that he had hoped that, as in previous general election campaigns, there would be one single hustings “which generated a high level of interest and a good attendance”. But he will be attending another event arranged by local churches on Tuesday “where I am extremely happy to answer any climate-related questions”.
In the marginal seat of Lewes, East Sussex, Maria Caulfield was replaced by Conservative councillor Nancy Bikson at a local climate hustings after saying she was too “busy” to appear. Bikson gave a statement but would not answer audience questions and had an embarrassing exit that involved clambering over bins and scaling a fence.
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https://www.desmog.co.uk/2019/12/09/election-2019-more-50-conservative-candidates-fail-show-climate-hustings
