Plymouth MP Luke Pollard has been promoted to the Labour front bench as Shadow Environment Secretary.
He faces a busy month, with three important pieces of legislation expected in January – the Environment, Fisheries and Agriculture Bills.
Mr Pollard, the MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, is the first city MP in the Shadow Cabinet for decades.
He replaces Sue Hayman who lost her seat in the general election.
“The climate crisis affecting our planet cannot be ignored,” Mr Pollard said. “As Shadow Environment Secretary, I’ll be calling for the action that is required to cut carbon, protect habitats and wildlife and ensure we maintain high environmental and animal welfare standards as the UK leaves the EU.
“I was proud to be one of the first MPs to call for Parliament to declare a climate emergency. The declaration of a climate emergency means we all need to look again at the way our country is run and take different decisions to cut carbon – I have, and government needs to as well.
“With wildfires raging in Australia, global temperature records being broken, species being lost, more people suffering from poor air quality and our imminent exit from the EU, there is no more important role in Parliament for the South West than this.
“As a Plymouth MP, I am proud that I’ll have a larger platform to raise the issues that matter most to people in Plymouth.
“I will do all I can to ensure that the views of Plymouth and the South West are being heard in Westminster from my new position in the Shadow Cabinet.
“Of course, it will be up to a new leader of the Labour Party to decide what will happen after March, but it is important that the Environment Bill, the Agriculture Bill and the Fisheries Bill are properly scrutinised and amended, to reflect the urgency of action required to address the climate emergency and get us ready for the rocky road ahead as we leave the European Union.”
Mr Pollard championed the creation of Britain’s first National Marine Park centred on Plymouth Sound.
Parliament is expected to start scrutiny of the three Bills in the next few weeks. Combined with changes being proposed to animal welfare legislation and regulation Defra, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, could have more legislative business than any other Whitehall department.
