Appointment greeted with anger by environmental campaigners who lament his record on green issues

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Michael Gove’s appointment as environment secretary is like “putting the fox in charge of the hen house”, according to a colleague who worked alongside him in the coalition government.

Theresa May announced Gove’s return to politics as part of her reshuffle on Sunday. The news was greeted with anger and frustration by environmental campaigners, who lamented his record on green issues, including his attempt to remove climate change from the geography curriculum while education secretary.

Ed Davey, the energy and climate change secretary at the time, said anyone who cared about the environment should be “deeply worried” by Gove’s appointment.

“I didn’t think it could get any worse but putting Michael Gove in charge of the environment is like putting the fox in charge of the hen house. It’s bad news.”

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Davey said Gove had tried to remove climate change from the geography curriculum in 2013, adding that the new environment secretary also believed key EU rules – protecting anything from wildlife to air pollution – should be discarded.

“There are huge issues coming down the line – from climate change to air pollution – and it makes me deeply concerned that he is in this position.”

Caroline Lucas, the Green party co-leader and MP, echoed those concerns. She said it was hard to “think of many politicians as ill-equipped for the role of environment secretary as Michael Gove”.

“His record of voting against measures to halt climate change and his attempt to wipe the subject from our children’s curriculum show him entirely unfit to lead our country in tackling one of the greatest threats we face,” she added.

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“This appointment is further evidence of both Theresa May’s complete disregard for the environment and her desperation to hold together a government in chaos.”

Jon Sauven, the Greenpeace chief executive, said Gove would have to act fast to prove “he is better than his record suggests”.

“Michael Gove is about to find an in-tray loaded with urgent problems, from tackling the air pollution crisis to reforming our broken farm subsidy system and protecting our oceans from overfishing and plastic waste. He should move swiftly to prove that he’s better than his record suggests,” said Sauven.

As education secretary Gove tried to remove climate change from the geography curriculum saying it should be taught in science. He was forced to drop the plans after Davey, environmentalists, and teachers argued the omission would downgrade the topic and make its existence a matter of greater dispute.

This year Gove underlined his opposition to key elements of EU environmental legislation, saying Brexit could allow Britain to scrap “absurd” rules such as the European commission’s habitats directive and clinical trials directive.

Lucas said: “As we enter Brexit negotiations, Gove’s past suggestion we scrap vital EU environmental protections becomes ever more concerning.”

During an event in 2014, Gove said “man and his activities clearly have an influence on the climate”, adding the government must “take appropriate steps to deal with it ... guided by the science and we need to make sure that we’re hard headed but realistic”.

He added: “I think it’s important, too, that we recognise that climate change has had an impact on societies in the past as well.”

He said that the environmental agenda had been captured “by people who want to use the genuine dangers ... as a way of providing a new rationale for greater state power and centralisation”, but he argued environmentalism was in reality a “core Conservative instinct”.

Friends of the Earth said Gove’s record would rankle with young voters who had turned out in huge numbers during last week’s election.

“Young people, who voted in droves at the general election, care passionately about climate change and the state of the environment,” said Dave Timms, a senior FoE campaigner. “The prime minister and Mr Gove can choose to listen to their voices, or ignore them at their own cost.”

One of the first challenges Gove will face is an attempt to defend the government’s air quality plans in the high court. It is the third court appearance for ministers after their previous plans to clean up the UK’s toxic air were deemed so poor as to be illegal.

Client Earth, which is bringing the case, said Gove had a “career defining opportunity” to be the politician who cleaned up the UK’s air.

Gove was a leading Brexit campaigner and is a close associate of Rupert Murdoch. On Monday Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, wrote to May to ask whether the media tycoon had lobbied to get him back on the frontbench.



Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) .@tom_watson has written to the PM to ask if @rupertmurdoch asked for @michaelgove to be given a job in Cabinet. pic.twitter.com/VJruVSZNRN

In a statemen Gove said it was an honour to be appointed environment secretary.

“As we leave the European Union, I am determined to protect our precious environment, support our thriving fishing industry and help our globally renowned food and farming industries grow more, sell more and export more great British food and drink.”

