I dreaded this as yesterday afternoon passed. Who would get Defra? Might Sunak bring back George Eustice? Might he even bring back Michael Gove? Or was it just possible he would notice that Dr Coffey had spent some time in Defra and, to rub in her fall from Deputy PM, give her Defra to manage? He did.
The RSPB was very polite and said this:
‘We would also like to extend our best wishes to the newly-appointed Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, whose constituency is home to the famous RSPB Minsmere nature reserve. We are looking forward to meeting Ms Coffey and working closely with her to deliver a positive agenda for nature recovery. But to be able to do that, the attack on nature needs to stop now. That means protecting the laws that protect nature rather than tearing them up, maintaining the protections for nature in the planning system not weakening them, and keeping vital proposals that will help farmers help nature.’
Dr Coffey was no eco-zealot during her previous stay at Defra.
She has not demonstrated a personal enthusiasm for wildlife conservation on her way up, but now she is on the way down maybe she’ll find some. It does happen, but I’d only expect Defra to turn into an effective department for wildlife conservation if they, and Dr Coffey, are told to do that. And that depends on the PM – who might be quite busy elsewhere.
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If Coffey turns out to be anything other than a total disaster for wildlife in her ‘new’ role I’ll eat my vegan hat.
It’ll be about the money and nothing else. Coffey would do well to take a leaf out of the ever flexible Michael Gove’s book – he knew he wouldn’t be there for long and latched on to a range of quick, cheap high profile environmental projects – not what biodiversity recovery is made of, but a lot better than nothing. One U turn he executed was to not only to overturn the new SoS’s efforts to stop beaver re-introductions, but to actually appear in person at the release of beavers in the Forest of Dean.
I think we are in different times. The ‘new’ prime minister may not be popular – certainly the conservatives aren’t. He obviously didn’t carry the support of the majority of conservative membership. However He needs action in the next 2 years to allow any chance of a return to government.
I think pressure should be applied by the NGOs on DEFRA in a polite and constructive way to prove this government’s professionalism as Mr Sunak stated he desired in his acceptance speech.
There are currently many important environment issues. I would argue getting the EC habitats and species directives written into British law as a high priority rather than it being cancelled. After all the NGOS were quite rightly protesting hard about the potential return of fracking and started to respond to the attack on nature. I believe the conservatives became very aware of how many votes their fracking stance lost them. Thankfully it’s now been shelved again.
Surely putting these habitat and species directives into British law may help gain support for the government from the environmental NGOs and their members and could help a ‘new’ environment minister with a ‘legacy.’
Frankly she was awful as S of S at DEFRA before, indeed she has been woefully inadequate wherever she has served in Gov’t. Sadly I don’t expect that to change, she seems to take the view of the Countryside Areliars, through the dreadful Bonner into account as well as those of the NFU and nobody else. The Conservation NGOs and indeed NE are going to have to bang on the door very loudly to avoid being completely ignored.