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Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II is the best ­documentary I’ve ever seen. It looks like it will also be the most influential.

I’ve spent decades talking about the environment. But Sir David’s programmes have far more cut-through with the public than any speech from a politician.

My enthusiasm for the life in our seas and oceans was born out of the astonishing TV series Under the Sea in the Sixties by the diver and underwater documentary maker Jacques Cousteau. It inspired me to take up diving.

When I dived in the Seventies in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, I’d see plastic cups, empty cola bottles and the dying coral reef.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

But it was nothing compared to now. I was shocked to see how bad it has become.

Who couldn’t be moved watching Blue Planet II seeing albatrosses unwittingly feeding their chicks plastic or dolphins potentially exposing their newborn calves to pollutants through their ­contaminated milk?

In the same week it was ­remarkable to see one of the major polluters, the oil giant Exxon Mobil , now accept the science of climate change and how it will have to change its vision for the future.

I remember 20 years ago, Exxon, along with other oil companies and the steel, coal and car industries, lobbying against me and other politicians when we were writing the Kyoto Treaty to cut carbon emissions.

Now they recognise that fundamental change is required to save the planet and deliver low-carbon economies.

The Tories always wanted to appear green. Cameron hugged a husky, made the Tory logo a tree and campaigned with the slogan “vote blue, go green”.

We’re supposed to believe Michael Gove , who made such a mess of our schools and justice system, is a champion of the planet.

When Gove was education ­secretary, his department allegedly tried to get people writing the ­geography curriculum “not to stress human causes of climate change”.

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Now he’s trying to raid the UK’s international aid budget to stop the plastic polluting our seas. Ninety per cent of it comes from just 10 rivers in India, China and Africa.

But Gove should also get our house in order first.

This country ranks only 18th in the world on recycling rates, behind South Korea and Taiwan.

This government voted against Labour’s environmental amendment in the EU Withdrawal Bill to keep the same green laws we already have. And its savage funding cuts to local councils have led to an increase in fly-tipping. Last year there were a million incidents of illegal tipping. That’s 114 every hour, and it costs £57million to clean them up.

Before the Tories start preaching about the menace of plastic in our seas, maybe they should clean up their own mess at home.

But the big lesson for any government is to recognise it is not one single problem.

Labour concentrated our efforts in government on reducing carbon, while not giving the same importance to reducing diesel particles. We were proved wrong as diesel is polluting and killing our people.

We need a fundamental change in achieving greater prosperity, a healthier economy and greater growth. That means national and local government working together, not against each other.

In the 19th century all our efforts in the industrial world were on the manufacture of goods.

In the 20th century the concentration was on consumption.

For the 21st century it is essential that it should be dominated by sustainability. That means we all have to do our bit.

As Sir David said at the end of Blue Planet II: “The future of all life now depends on us.”

So vote Blue Planet, not Gove Green!