Alex Norris MP

This lunchtime I took the opportunity to ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Boris Johnson MP, what steps the Government is taking to support the implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change, and then question why the Prime Minister didn’t make her thoughts on this known to Donald Trump before he announced the US was withdrawing from the agreement, rather than waiting until the G20 summit to challenge him.

On 1 June 2017, Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which was adopted by 195 countries in December 2015. Following this announcement the Prime Minister refused to denounce Trump’s decision in a joint statement with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, whereas Labour strongly condemns the US decision to withdraw from the Agreement. I’m deeply disappointed by Theresa May’s failure to publicly criticise this decision and by her refusal to join the statement of our European allies condemning the announcement and expressing support for the Agreement.

I believe the UK must now redouble its efforts to support the Agreement and we must do everything we can to help make sure that it succeeds.

You can watch my questions and the Minister’s responses here.