It’s bloody roasting out there. London has been pushing 35°C, with many other parts of southern England and Wales also under an extreme heat warning.
And it’s not just staying out there, eh? Things can be almost as bad, or even worse, indoors.
In fact, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle allowed male journalists to sit in the House of Commons Press Gallery without a suit jacket on Wednesday – a rare move indeed.
The Lib Dems have called on the government to ‘immediately’ open up air-conditioned public buildings – what they call ‘cool hubs’ – to vulnerable people who are at highest risk from the heat.
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They’ve also said investment needs to be directed to hospitals, care homes and schools so they can be adequately cooled down.
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Greta Thunberg told Metro that these latest high temperatures are ‘only the beginning’.
The changing climate came up twice at PMQs yesterday, thanks to the sweltering conditions.
In his first answer, Sir Keir Starmer lamented the loss of a consensus in the House that ‘climate change was the generational challenge’ and that the ‘UK should be a global leader on it’.
Then, to a Labour MP who revealed a mature tree had fallen on her house this morning, the PM said the government is ‘making our country more resilient for the future by modernising building regulations’ – though it was more about cooling homes down than making them timberproof.
It also provided a handy stick with which he could beat Reform UK, which wants to scrap many of the laws and targets that dictate how the country fights climate change.
How is Labour getting on with that fight?
Well, even by simply taking it seriously Labour is setting itself apart from the opposition.
Both the Conservatives and Reform have vowed to abandon the UK’s net zero commitments, arguing they are stopping the economy from growing and resulting in bills being pushed up.
Within Starmer’s government, the top crusader for the environment has been Energy Secretary Ed Miliband.
However, a report in the i paper suggested he may be willing to put that reputation at risk by giving the green light to drilling in the controversial North Sea gas field called Jackdaw.
That’s because Miliband is believed to be keen to secure the top role of Chancellor when Andy Burnham becomes PM – and backing Jackdaw might signal to businesses that he won’t let green concerns get in the way of growth.
On the other hand, he’d open himself up to criticism from campaigners who are worried about temperatures rising further due to gas drilled from beneath a British seabed.
Days like these are a reminder of the impact such decisions can have. And days like these are becoming rather more frequent.
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