This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

The Conservatives have been criticised for picking an election candidate who has questioned whether climate change is dangerous and argued its risks have been exaggerated as a “socialist Trojan horse”.

Craig Morley, who is standing in the marginal Labour-held seat of Reading East, a key target for the Tories, has a long explanation on his website of why he believes the “dangerous climate change theory relies on shaky evidence”.

Morley, a former Foreign Office official who held a job as head of climate change and energy policy for south China, says the evidence for human-caused climate change is incontrovertible but goes on to claim scientific models have “overexaggerated” the trend of warming and are unable to predict its consequences.

On his official website, a post written in the past year says: “The alarmism and lexicon of emergency used in the current debate has lost sense of reality and proportion. There is no developing catastrophe and no smoking gun.

“We used to have a science where scientists make a claim or hypothesis, and then tested it against independent data. If they failed, they went back and started again. Today, all that seems to matter is who shouts the loudest.

“Stripped of the theatre of hype, cheerleading rent-seekers, alarmist headlines, Extinction Rebellion stunts, climate emergencies and even Greta Thunberg’s lectures, the stark truth is that the modern ‘climate emergency’ movement is about politics and wealth redistribution, not science.

“It is a socialist Trojan horse for delivering failed socialist economic policies through using the emotive lexicon of ‘emergency’, disaster, and doom-mongering.”

Last month, Morley approvingly tweeted a Washington Post article highlighting the views of 500 “scientists and professionals” from Clintel, a Dutch climate science-denying thinktank endorsed by the UK’s climate science-denying Global Warming Policy Foundation.

In his tweet, Morley wrote: “There is consensus that Earth has warmed. There is no consensus on what will happen in future, or what the impacts will be.”

Morley’s stance is at odds with his party. Michael Gove, the former environment secretary, and Andrea Leadsom, the business secretary, have both acknowledged there is a climate emergency, even though the government has not formally declared one and missed parliament’s deadline for taking action to tackle the situation.

Boris Johnson previously said climate change was a “primitive fear” that was “without foundation”, but changed his position to accept climate science after becoming foreign secretary.

The Tories are concerned they are being outflanked on environmental and climate issues by Labour. The party has released a series of Facebook adverts of its candidates standing in front of trees and green spaces, with their names on green backgrounds, which appear to be aimed at younger audiences.

Responding to Morley’s views, Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow business secretary, said it was “no wonder the Tory party is attracting climate deniers”.

She added: “Under the Tories, private investment in renewable energy is plummeting, support for solar and electric vehicles has been slashed and onshore wind has been effectively banned.

“At this election, the choice is clear – this is our last chance to take action to protect future generations under Labour or allow the Tories to accelerate our planet’s destruction.”

Wera Hobhouse, the Liberal Democrat climate change spokeswoman, said: “If ever voters needed a clear sign that the Tories weren’t serious about tackling the climate emergency then here it is.

“Whether it’s expanding Heathrow, scrapping renewable energy or threatening our capability to work with our friends in Europe, the Conservatives have delayed climate action at every turn … We need climate action now, not more Tory climate action deniers.”

Asked if he stood by the statement on his website, Morley said: “Tackling climate change is vital but independent experts and even Labour’s own unions say their promises don’t stack up. The GMB said ‘wishful thinking doesn’t generate the power we need to heat homes, keep the lights on and the economy functioning’.

“The reality is that Jeremy Corbyn’s plans would wreck the economy, putting up bills for hardworking families – and preventing any real progress on climate change.

“Under a Conservative government, we have decarbonised our economy faster than any other G20 nation and reduced greenhouse gas emissions faster than any other G7 nation since 2010.”

A Conservative spokesman gave a similar response, saying: “We’ll take no lectures from Labour. Under the Conservatives, we have led the world in tackling climate change, cutting emissions faster than any other G20 country, taking renewable electricity generation to a record level and becoming the first major economy to legislate for net zero.

“While we make ambitious but achievable commitments to tackling climate change, independent experts and Labour’s trade union donors say Labour’s plans are ‘utterly unachievable’ and ‘almost certainly impossible’.”