By Jack Francklin
December 10 2019, 14.10
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Labour’s Steve Reed may boast about his green credentials but he doesn’t take the climate emergency seriously, according to one of his election rivals.
Mr Reed was first elected Croydon North’s MP after winning a by-election in 2012 and is defending a mammoth 32,365 majority – the biggest in south west London – at the General Election.
“I don’t think Steve Reed is doing enough on this issue,” said Green Party candidate Rachel Chance, who is from Shrewsbury and has taken part in Extinction Rebellion protests in the past.
“He has missed a lot of votes on climate change. He voted against airport taxis and regulation on fracking.
“My husband visited him in one of his surgeries and he said the climate emergency is not a top priority for him and that is not right.
“It is an issue that will effect everything. We need to get this issue sorted before anything else.
“I think it is awful people are feeling so let down by politics and that they don’t see a future for their children.
“I am lucky to be able to see my sister’s children grow up, but I just don’t want them to be facing a future with food shortages, dangerous flooding and wildfires.”
Since the Croydon North constituency was created in 1997 boundary changes it has become one of the safest red seats in London.
But Mr Reed claims he has a long track record in tackling climate change, establishing Repowering, now the UK’s biggest sustainable energy generating co-op.
He wants Labour controlled Croydon Council to promote sustainable energy generation in the community with a target of generating up to 20% of its own energy which would make the borough the greenest in Europe.
“Climate change is an existential threat to our planet,” he said.
“Temperatures are rising at record rates thanks to an increase in greenhouse gases and the destruction of forests as a result of human activity.
“Rising temperatures are melting the ice caps, causing sea levels to rise and changing weather patterns. “Only co-ordinated global action can provide a solution.
“This has been made more difficult by populist leaders such as Donald Trump in the USA who deny the science that proves the cause and impact of global warming,” he said.
Mr Trump recently visited the UK for NATO talks.
Read more about what’s important to south west London constituencies in our 24-page General Election preview special.
