In what climate change campaigners have praised as a ‘barnstorming speech’, MP Helen Hayes called for parliament to divest from fossil fuels.
Hayes is among those pushing for parliament to follow the lead of local authorities like Southwark and fully divest.
The Dulwich and West Norwood MP said: “Part of the system change we need to see involves taking money out of dirty, damaging, exploitative fossil fuel extraction.
“And we can do something about that here in this place. Both of my local councils, Lambeth and Southwark, have committed to divest their pension funds out of fossil fuels, yet our parliamentary pension funds remain invested in fossil fuels, despite a hundred members writing to the trustees last year calling on them to divest and remove our money from fossil fuels and invest it in sustainable industries.
“I call on all members here to join that call. We need the government to act comprehensively at the scale required by an emergency.
“Climate change demands that it is the prism and the underpinning principle of all our political and economic decision making.”
Hayes has also praised her daughter for joining thousands of school age children striking on Fridays to demand more action on climate change.