9 April 2017
Green Party Animals Spokesperson: ‘If the revelations are reliable, they offer just a snapshot of the absurdity at the heart of Theresa May’s Brexit.’
The Government’s apparent plan to weaken wildlife protections and ‘scale back’ Britain’s climate ambitions reveals the absurdity of Theresa May’s extreme Brexit agenda, according to the Green Party’s Animals spokesperson.
Keith Taylor MEP, who is also a member of the European Parliament’s Environment Committee and the global Climate Parliament, said:
“If this proves true, it amounts to a promise to sacrifice vital and hard-fought safeguards in a grubby, and plainly desperate, attempt to secure toxic trade deals with nations who have little respect for wildlife or climate change – the most pressing issue we face globally. That the revelations come just days after India made it clear Theresa May could not rely on Britain’s colonial past to expedite trade negotiation is extremely telling. Just over a week on from triggering Article 50 and it would appear the Government is beginning to realise the economic realities of the Prime Minister’s extreme Brexit agenda.”
“Nobody voted to throw away wildlife safeguards or jettison vital climate ambitions. EU wildlife protections and climate change targets are some of the strongest and most ambitious in the world; proof positive of the value of working with our European Neighbours to tackle cross-border challenges. The best and easiest way of maintaining these regulations post-Brexit is through continued membership of the Single Market. Instead, ‘secret documents’ reveal the Government wants to ‘scale back’ our ability to tackle wildlife crime and ignore the urgent need to mitigate the worst effects of climate change – all in a desperate rush to secure damaging free trade deals to compensate for the economic shock of being yanked out of the Single Market. If the revelations are reliable, they offer just a snapshot of the absurdity at the heart of Theresa May’s Brexit.”
“Greens will continue resisting an extreme Brexit that threatens our precious wildlife and our ability to tackle climate change.”
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