Steve Reed appointed new DEFRA Secretary

Steve Reed appointed as Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Agriculture – Friends of the Earth reaction

Reacting to the announcement of Steve Reed as the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Agriculture, nature campaigner at Friends of the Earth, Paul de Zylva, said:

"Whilst Labour seems to 'get' climate and energy, it has traditionally fallen short on policies for our natural environment. That’s why Keir Starmer asked Steve Reed to plug the huge nature-shaped hole in Labour’s thinking.

“In his short time as Labour’s shadow Environment Secretary, Steve Reed has grasped the issues. Now he is in government he must make protecting and restoring the nation’s depleted nature central to Labour’s plans to revive broken Britain, improve public health and cut costs to the NHS and society as a whole.

"Historic wins by the Lib Dems and Greens, who ran heavily on fighting sewage pollution, underline the need for Mr Reed to get going on cleaning up our rivers and seas. This means holding water companies to account, and ensuring there is full funding for proper monitoring and reporting of all pollutants, not just sewage.”

ENDS

Notes to editors: 

1. In a scoring of political party manifestos carried out jointly by Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace UK ahead of the general election, the Labour Party scored 20.5 points out of 40 for their green plans. Though this was four times higher than the Conservatives’ offering, both the Green Party and Liberal Democrats scored far higher. To read the full analysis please visit: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/system-change/general-election-2024-manifestos-final-scores

2. ELECTION: Labour's green plans score 4x higher than Tories'.