Brighton Pavilion MP Caroline Lucas asked Boris Johnson to end the export of plastic waste at Prime Minister’s Questions today (Wednesday 27 January).
The Green MP cited a nine-year-old girl from East Devon, who has started a petition about the matter, during the weekly question time session in the House of Commons.
Asking her question remotely, with coronavirus restrictions still limiting the number of MPs in the Commons chamber, she said: “There is a yawning gulf between the government’s green rhetoric and their action.
“Hot on the heels of sanctioning the first deep coalmine in 30 years, ministers have broken yet another election manifesto promise and will keep sending plastic waste to developing countries, where they are regularly dumped or burnt.
“Nine-year-old schoolgirl Lizzie knows that this is wrong and she has a simple message for the Prime Minister: protect our oceans and people living in poorer countries by banning these dirty plastic exports now.
“Will he listen to Lizzie and to the 90,000 signatories to her petition and stop this damaging and unethical practice – yes or no?
The Conservative PM said: “First of all, I must absolutely contest and deny what the honourable member has said about action.
“She talks about coalmines and she may not know that in 1970 – I was alive, she may not have been alive – this country got 90 per cent of its energy from fossil fuels, from coal, and we now get 5 per cent.
“That is thanks to the green, active, technologically optimistic policies driven by Conservative governments and I am very proud of it.
“I am also proud of what we are doing to ban plastic and ban the export of plastic waste around the world, which is in our Conservative party manifesto, which we will fulfil.”
PM seems totally discombobulated by my #PMQ
First, reducing use of coal in past is no reason for now giving go-ahead for first deep coal mine in 30 years
Second, good to hear a ban on exporting #plasticwaste is pledge he plans to deliver
When?@greenpeaceUK @friends_earth pic.twitter.com/RhFbm8DDhD
— Caroline Lucas (@CarolineLucas) January 27, 2021
After the exchange the Green MP said that Mr Johnson appeared to misunderstand the difference between energy and electricity.
To sign the petition calling on Britain to stop sending plastic rubbish abroad, click here.
Who cares. We won’t more universal credit and free WiFi.
Typical Greens in la-la land. We’re in the midst of a highly fatal and debilitating (if you’re sufficiently fortunate not to die) pandemic, with the NHS in crisis and on its knees, and La Lucas is banging on about plastic waste – maybe she could just wait a bit until we’re out of this health disaster, and, if we’re still alive, talk about it then. We know this is important, but not right now, thanks, Ms Lucas – most of us have more pressing concerns, like not dying from Covid, trying to stay sane, getting the kids educated, jobs and livelihoods and all that boring mundane stuff for Greens. Only Brighton could have the sole Green (and irrelevant in Parliament) MP and a Green (with Labour secretly helping them) council.
Hopefully, 9 year old Lizzie from East Devon is not another poison dwarf Thunberg in the making.
La la doesn’t care about Covid, her electorate, or the local economy.
Her disciples/councillors want to ruin the city with cycle lanes and car bans, and are very concerned about the UK nuclear deterrent.
A party that has totally lost touch with reality.
Doesn’t LaLa look tired?
If we didn’t export our waste we’d have to deal with it ourselves and then someone might realise how unsustainable that is and that it needs to be dealt with at source. i.e. stop manufacturing plastic and stop producing so much waste in general.
Every day we don’t deal with the issue we’re making it a bigger problem to deal with later. Like allowing people to walk down the road daily and litter the streets without anyone clearing it up.
So regardless of Covid or Brexit or anything else it’s something that should be dealt with today.