THE Tories don’t trust themselves to tackle the climate emergency, Labour said today after Alok Sharma threatened to resign if the new prime minister fails to fully commit to delivering net zero by 2050. 

The Cabinet minister, who led last year’s Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, raised concerns about the remaining leadership candidates’ “lukewarm” support for net zero in an interview with the Observer on Sunday. 

Urging candidates to “proactively” set out their support for the net zero agenda, he told the paper: “Anyone aspiring to lead our country needs to demonstrate that they take this issue incredibly seriously, that they’re willing to continue to lead and take up the mantle that Boris Johnson started off.”

Pressed twice on whether he would step down if candidates were weak on tackling the climate crisis, Mr Sharma said: “I don’t rule anything out and I don’t rule anything in.”

Four of the five remaining Tory candidates have reluctantly committed to preserving the legally binding net zero target, with only Kemi Badenoch refusing to back the move. 

But other Tory hopefuls have indicated that they would water down commitments, with Foreign Secretary Liz Truss calling for a “temporary moratorium” on the green energy levy, and Penny Mordaunt urging for the levies to be scrapped. 

In an interview with BBC One on Sunday, Ms Mordaunt reaffirmed her commitment to net zero by 2050, but suggested that support could wane if policies “clobber people.”  

Labour said it “beggars belief” that Tory candidates are “tripping over each other to dump climate commitments” as the country faces its strongest heatwave on record. 

“Tonight we learn that even the Tories don’t trust the Tories to tackle the climate emergency,” shadow climate change secretary Ed Miliband said. 

“The Conservative leadership candidates are so detached from reality and the British people that their own climate chief is threatening to resign because he doesn’t think the candidates give a damn about the climate crisis.” 

Green groups have also hit out at the lack of enthusiasm among candidates to tackle the climate crisis, as well as businesses including Amazon and Coca-Cola. 

In a letter to candidates last week, organised by CLG UK, a group of companies warned that abandoning net zero would condemn the country to “unnecessary costs and risks.”