Rishi ‘too busy’ for Cop27 but Nicola to jet out

RISHI Sunak is under pressure to attend the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt next month after revealing he does not plan to go.

The Prime Minister has said that although he is ‘personally committed’ to tackling the climate crisis, he must focus on the ‘depressing domestic challenges’ instead.

Hours after the PM revealed his decision, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced she plans to attend the event in Sharm el-Sheikh.

A spokesman for the Scottish Government said: ‘Given the vital importance of governments working together to tackle climate change, it is the First Minister’s intention to attend Cop27.

‘Details of the ministerial programme are currently being finalised.’

Mr Sunak’s decision to snub the event will raise concerns that the UK will not be properly represented – as ex-PM Liz Truss had been planning to attend.

Instead, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Business Secretary Grant Shapps and the Environment Secretary Therese Coffey will go, alongside the Cop26 president Alok Sharma.

Tory former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries said yesterday Mr Sunak was ‘wrong’ to skip the summit, with global heating the ‘biggest crisis facing our planet’.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said people ‘expect their Prime Minister to be on the world stage sorting these problems out’.

He added: ‘It’s an absolute failure of leadership.’

But Jacob Rees-Mogg, who resigned as energy secretary as Mr Sunak took over as Prime Minister, said he was ‘right not to go’ to Cop27.

‘The cost of living won’t be solved in Sharm el-Sheikh, where each hotel room for the conference is £2,000 a night,’ Mr Rees-Mogg tweeted.

Speaking to journalists during a visit to a south London hospital yesterday, Mr Sunak said: ‘The leadership that we have shown on the climate is unmatched... It’s important to me that, as Prime Minister, we leave behind an environment that is better for our children and grandchildren.

‘I’m very passionate about that. I’m very personally committed to it. I just think, at the moment, it’s right that I’m also focusing on the depressing domestic challenges we have with the economy. I think that’s what people watching would reasonably expect me to be doing, as well.’

The news comes as Downing Street yesterday admitted for the first time that the King was advised not to attend the summit under Miss Truss’s administration.

Aides said he is mindful of his new constitutional role as monarch and understands that a short trip to Egypt would not be appropriate for his first state visit abroad.

They made clear the environment remains a top priority for himself and his family.

Meanwhile, Mr Sharma backed calls for the Government to go further on a windfall tax on oil and gas giants.

Mr Sharma, who was recently demoted from Cabinet, told the Guardian: ‘These are excessive profits and they have to be treated in the appropriate way when it comes to taxation.’

‘Domestic challenges’