Triatram Hunt (Labour) writing in the Daily Telegraph:
” … Once, Conservative politicians believed in conservation; in defending the institutions that helped preserve our national character. Well not this lot. In the last Parliament, they came for the forests; now they have our national parks, green belt and marine environment in their sights.
So enraging is this casual disregard for England’s loveliness that it makes you question the health of our democracy itself. What allows a government with so paltry a majority the mandate to ride roughshod over something so ingrained within our national psyche? We in the Labour Party have a responsibility to hold this Government to account more effectively and to present a new vision of conservation, rural prosperity and stewardship. Because it is our bequest, as a great governing party of the 20th century, that is now in jeopardy.”