Lee Anderson mocks Starmer after his ‘puppet master’ Macron follows Sunak’s lead

Lee Anderson has mocked Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer over his failure to back Rishi Sunak’s new approach to net zero policies after Emmanuel Macron followed the British Prime Minister’s lead. The outspoken Tory deputy chairman described the French President as Starmer’s “puppet master” and wondered if he would be as quick to criticise the new policy from Paris as he was Mr Sunak’s. Mr Sunak took the bold decision last week to announce that he would postpone a ban on new petrol and diesel cars by five years to 2035 and also suspend plans to ban gas boilers. He also promised to ditch extra taxes on meat and a series of painful net zero commitments made by Boris Johnson to make the UK carbon neutral by 2050. But while Sir Keir has been relatively quiet on the issue Labour went on the attack claiming that Mr Sunak was putting future generations at risk by not taking the so-called climate emergency seriously. Rishi Sunak led the way in ditching expensive net zero policies (Image: Getty) Now Mr Macron has suddenly followed suit also postponing plans to ban gas central heating boilers. The French President appeared to echo Mr Sunak when he defended what he called ‘an ecology based on progress’, which does not require ‘a cure that is incompatible with a productive and social model such as ours’. Just as Mr Sunak had said, Mr Macron pointed out that banning gas boilers particularly hurt rural areas in France. He said: “We will not prohibit [the installation of new gas boilers] because we cannot leave our compatriots, particularly in the most rural areas, without a solution.” Last week Sir Keir took his Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves on a visit to meet the French government in Paris. Starmer took his top team to Paris (Image: Getty) After appearing to agree the week before to give the EU control over illegal migrants coming to the UK, the visit saw the Labour leader being accused of taking instructions from the Elysee Palace. Mr Anderson said that Mr Macron was Sir Keir’s “puppet master” suggesting the Labour leader would be taking instructions from Europe, not British voters. Now that Mr Macron has followed Mr Sunak’s lead on net zero he now wondered whether Sir Keir would “flip flop” on policy again and pull a U-turn himself on climate change policies. He said: “This recent policy change by Starmer’s puppet master just goes to show that the UK does not have to be in the EU to lead on sensible policies that the rest of Europe can adopt. “Slippery Starmer was very critical of Rishi last week so let’s see if Macron’s lackey is as vocal this week.” Sir Keir has been accused of being in the pocket of climate change extremists after Labour took significant donations from Dale Vince who is also bankrolling Just Stop Oil.