Keir Starmer has been accused of “pathetic bullying” by a Norfolk environmental campaigner who was named and ridiculed by the prime minister in a Daily Mail article.
Sir Keir piled on his disdain for Andrew Boswell over the first five paragraphs of a tabloid article headlined: “We stop time-wasting NIMBYs and fanatics from holding our country to ransom.”
Dr Boswell, a computer scientist who describes himself as an environmental consultant, is now challenging roads and other projects in court, claiming they violate environmental, nature and habitat laws.
Dr Boswell told Sky News this afternoon: “I think it’s disgraceful that he has accused an individual in this way, and he is someone who cannot easily defend himself.”
“I think this is a very dangerous move on the part of the Prime Minister and he should not have approached it this way.”
Asked why he thought it was dangerous, Dr. Boswell said: “Well, he appointed me. I’m just a normal person, a member of society. I live my life by that standard. “I don’t have a huge amount of knowledge.” There is no other media team to protect me. It is extremely dangerous to do this to individuals. ”
Speaking after the attack, Dr Boswell said Keir Starmer should understand the government’s failure to maintain its climate ambitions and said he would like to discuss this with the prime minister.
“Keir Starmer should actually meet me and talk about the climate emergency and the fact that we can’t just ignore carbon emissions like Rachel Reeves did in Davos yesterday. We can’t do that.
“And the simple fact of the matter is that this country’s planning system does not secure the government’s climate ambitions.
“So that’s why I went into the planning system, the legal system, to strengthen it. Until that is strengthened, people will be able to resist governments and government decisions that don’t protect our climate ambitions. We will continue to take legal action.”
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NIMBY v YIMBY
In a commentary article in the Daily Mail, Sir Keir identifies Dr Boswell by describing his work, but does not mention his name.
However, an accompanying article in the email identifies him.
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In the article, Sir Keir writes: “The former Green Party MP spent years trying to block important safety improvements to the A47. The case reached the Supreme Court last year. However, the Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit as “devoid of logical basis.”
Campaigners are set to go to the Supreme Court to block government plans for improvements on the A47, east of Norwich, Norfolk. Photo: Google Street View
“A leading judge even said there was a ‘totally unrealistic atmosphere’ to the trial. So why did he waste years of court time and tens of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money?” Could it have been wasted?”
“There are countless other examples of NIMBYs and fanatics using their ideological blind spots to concoct legal systems to prevent governments from building the infrastructure the country needs.
“They know they don’t stand a chance. They just want to prolong it, hoping the government and industry will give up. They want to win for themselves, not the country.”
Asked whether the Prime Minister was right to write this, Dr Boswell told Sky News: ‘No, he is absolutely wrong on several points.
“First of all, in court, when we went to the High Court, the High Court judge actually said that my case helped highlight problems with the way environmental impact assessments are done. .
“And when it comes to safety issues, what these road schemes are actually doing is spending £500 million on short roads, when there are far more dangerous hazards in Norfolk.
“I’ve always said we need to improve the safety of Norfolk’s roads. We need to target black spots, we don’t need to spend huge sums of money digging up roads, but the reality is that we need to improve the safety of our roads. It doesn’t improve safety.”
Sky News has asked Number 10 for a response.
