UN climate conference head sacked

Former energy minister Claire Perry O’neill axed from key role by PM over ‘concerns’ about leadership

CLAIRE PERRY O’NEILL, the former energy minister, was sacked last night from her role as president of this year’s UN Climate Change Conference following “concerns about her leadership”.

Boris Johnson told the former Tory MP he was removing her from the post with immediate effect, though no official reason was given for her dismissal.

Whitehall sources suggested officials “couldn’t work with her” and that concerns about her performance had been a “long-running issue”.

It leaves Britain’s presidency of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference – known as COP26 – in turmoil with just 10 months to go before the event.

Downing Street said the presidency would now become a ministerial role, with the COP26 unit taken into the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Ms Perry O’neill, who stood down as an MP at the general election, was nominated as the president of COP26 in September,

but Whitehall sources said there had been concerns about how she was running the unit for months. “There were problems both in terms of delivery and in terms of some internal matters,” one source said. “Her leadership has been a long-running issue.”

During her time as energy minister, civil service unions raised concerns about claims that Ms Perry O’neill swore and shouted at civil servants.

The PCS, FDA and Prospect unions wrote a joint letter to Alex Chisholm, permanent secretary at BEIS.

COP26 insiders suggested last night that Ms Perry O’neill’s behaviour was likely to jar with officials from other countries. The COP26 summit is regarded as the most important round of UN climate negotiations since the creation of the Paris agreement in 2015, but according to one report she shocked colleagues by saying “the Paris agreement is dead”.

One source told The Guardian: “The senior team of officials in the unit couldn’t work with her and her erratic behaviour and poor performance has spooked key stakeholders.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “The Prime Minister is grateful to Claire for her work preparing for what will be a very successful and ambitious climate change summit in Glasgow in November. Preparations will continue at pace for the summit, and a replacement will be confirmed shortly.” There was speculation last night that she could be replaced by Lord Goldsmith, the environment minister who lost his seat as an MP in December but was able to keep his job after being ennobled.

Ms Perry O’neill did not respond to attempts by The Daily Telegraph to contact her, but a spokesman for her referred to a tweet in which she said: “Very sad that that the role I was offered by Boris Johnson last year has now been rescinded as Whitehall ‘can’t cope’ with an Indy cop unit.

“A shame we haven’t had one climate Cabinet meeting since we formed. Wishing the COP team every blessing in the climate recovery emergency.”