AUSTRALIAN MP Craig Kelly was forced to apologise to British meteorologist Laura Tobin today after he received backlash for calling her an “ignorant pommy weather girl.”

The Liberal Party MP from Sydney appeared on Good Morning Britain on Monday and told Ms Tobin, the show’s weather presenter, that there is no link between climate change and Australia’s current bushfire crisis.

Mr Kelly also claimed that a push towards renewable energy would not have prevented the crisis.

Ms Tobin called him a “climate denier” and said: “Australia has just had in 2019 its highest year temperature-wise ever recorded and its driest year ever record with forecast temperatures that go back over 100 years.

“You have the second-highest carbon emissions per person on Earth and you are burying your head in the sand. This is a climate emergency.”

Mr Kelly called her a “pommy” during a rant on his Facebook page, saying that the meteorologist needs to “educate herself and learn the facts” and referred to those concerned about an increase in global temperatures as “alarmists.”

She responded to his post by laying out her CV on Twitter. She wrote that, among other experience, she has a degree in physics and meteorology.

Mr Kelly was a furniture salesman before being elected into Australia’s parliament.

He has since deleted the post and apologised to Ms Tobin through local media.

At least 23 people and half a billion animals have died, 6.3 million hectares of land have burned and more than 1,500 homes have been destroyed in Australia’s recent wildfires.