Sir Keir Starmer

THE internet has been awash with images of freak thunderstorms in Germany, icy floods in Italy and raging wildfires in Greece in recent weeks.

Newspapers bear witness to this “hell on earth” with images of young British families escaping the inferno in small boats – the irony is not lost – against a backdrop of billowing smoke and flames.

But in England, where the sky is grey and low, it is easy to forget Europe is burning. The Labour Party’s failure to win Uxbridge and South Ruislip in last week’s by-election has been blamed squarely on the expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) by politicians of all stripes.

Danny Beales, who stood as Labour’s candidate in the west London seat, appeared at party’s National Policy Forum on Sunday to launch an attack on the flagship policy of London’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan. ULEZ “cut us off at the knees,” Mr Beales said.

The result has caused an unedifying panic among Labour’s front bench, with Sir Keir Starmer calling on Mr Khan to “reflect” on the ULEZ expansion in the im­medi­ate aftermath of the vote.

Meanwhile, some wings of the Conservative Party see climate policy as a divisive “wedge issue” to exploit ahead of the next general election.

Prime minister Rishi Sunak signalled this week he may rethink his party’s green agenda, declaring all measures to mitigate climate change must be “proportionate and pragmatic”.

But it would be ill-advised to conclude ULEZ is solely to blame for Labour’s defeat. Other factors were at play: for example, the Conservative winner Steve Tuckwell – a local councillor who had worked the area long before the by-election was called – was able to mischievously dub Cllr Beales the “Camden Chameleon”, painting him as distant; even if he had been born and grown up in Hillingdon, he had stayed on as a councillor here.

And, as climate activist Venice Van Someren points out the vote was “really tight” in Uxbridge, with the Green Party winning “almost 1,000 votes, which is nearly double what the [Tory] majority was”, (Green New Deal Rising hold weekly picket at Sir Keir Starmer’s office, July 27).

The Labour Party would do well to recognise the world is changing rapidly and irreversibly. We are in the grip of an unprecedented crisis – but recent events suggest Mr Starmer’s party still prioritises short-term economic growth over climate action.

As the environmental breakdown intensifies, the electorate’s desire for security may soon trump other interests. A wide-scale transformation of society and the economy, which doesn’t stop with the ULEZ, is needed. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to do more.