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Rishi Sunak is considering attending the Cop27 climate summit if he has time, a minister says, in what would be the first big U-turn of his premiership.
The prime minister has been widely criticised for his decision to snub the gathering in Egypt – despite the UK’s role in handing over its presidency and the urgent need to combat the climate emergency.
But Mark Spencer, the farming minister, hinted at a U-turn, saying Mr Sunak would attend the summit – starting on 6 November – if “he’s able to get through” his other work.
“Only he will know what he’s got in his inbox and in his diary,” the minister told Sky News,” pointing to the 17 November de-fact budget as the prime minister’s priority.
But he suggested Mr Sunak will go “if he has the time”, adding: “He’ll make that call and I’m sure it’ll be the right one.”
The criticism has grown after Downing Street told King Charles not to go to Cop27 – despite his long record of environmental campaigning – Mr Sunak sticking to the effective ban imposed by Liz Truss.
The prime minister’s skipping of Cop27 has been attacked by his own climate leader, the Cop26 president Alok Sharma, who has also been removed from the cabinet.
Developing countries most at risk from the fast-changing climate have also hit out. Belize’s ambassador to the UN, Carlos Fuller, accused the UK of “washing their hands of leadership”.
Mohamed Nasheed, speaker of the Maldives parliament and also a former Cop president, called it “very worrying that the UK thought there was anything more serious than climate change”.
The environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, provoked astonishment by dismissing the importance of Cop27, calling it “just a gathering of people in Egypt”.
Mr Sunak might be pondering a rethink partly because his rival Boris Johnson, who led the UK’s efforts at Cop26 in Glasgow last year, is considering going to the summit.
Mr Spencer also said the personal mobile phone of Ms Truss was “clearly hacked” – after No 10 refused to confirm a Mail on Sunday report revealing the apparent breach.
The incident has prompted accusations of a cover-up after the paper was told it was kept secret by Mr Johnson and Simon Case, the cabinet Secretary, during the summer Tory leadership campaign.
Mr Spencer said: “The former prime minister clearly was hacked. So, that is the first thing you do, say ‘oh my goodness, I’ve been hacked, help’, and the security services will help you with that challenge.”
But he downplayed criticism of ministers’ growing use of mobile phones, saying: “We all talk on personal phones, don’t we, you know? I ring my wife, maybe there’s some little man in China listening to the conversations between me and my wife.
“You’ve just got to be careful about what information you use on which phone and you get a lot of help and support from the security services on that.”
