Reading MP Alok Sharma loses Cabinet post

MP for Reading West, Alok Sharma, has been removed as a member of Cabinet of the British Government by incoming Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Although the MP will remain as Britain's COP26 president, this will no longer be an official Cabinet position. It is unclear if this has implications for new Prime Minister Mr. Sunak's approach to the UKs agreed and legally binding climate change targets.

The new PM, who is from Southampton but won his seat in the House of Commons for the Richmond constituency in North Yorkshire, named a new cabinet yesterday. There were few surprises but the demotion of his fellow Southampton politician, Mr Sharma was one.

It has already prompted the new host of the UN COP Climate Talks, Egypt, to call on Mr, Sunak not to "backslide" on environmental commitments already agreed by Britain.

Egyptian ambassador Mohamed Nasr told Sky News: "We know that there are challenges, economic challenges, facing the UK and other countries, but we hope that those challenges do not lead to backsliding on the pledges."

Meanwhile, just as Mr Sunak was naming his new cabinet, Mr. Sharma was attending the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, where he said: “In terms of new oil and gas licences, I think what the UK Government, indeed every government, has to demonstrate is, how are the policies that we are putting forward consistent with legally binding commitments on, in our case, getting to net zero by 2050, or indeed our near-term carbon budgets.”

Mr. Sunak has also outlined his intention to ban fracking in what is a break with his immediate predecessor Liz Truss.

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