'Climate change deniers like Donald Trump and Scott Morrison are the same as flat-earthers,' says Leeds MP Fabian Hamilton

Speaking in the House of Commons Mr Hamilton was responding to a statement on the Australian bush fires from Foreign Office Minister Heather Wheeler.

After paying tribute to those who had lost their lives and thanking firefighters, Mr Hamilton, a Labour MP for Leeds North East, turned his attention to the causes of the blazes.

He said: “But when the fires are finally extinguished, it would be remiss of us if we did not discuss the underlying causes of these unprecedented events.

“2019 was the hottest year on record. The last five years fill the top five positions as the hottest years on record.

“Any group of individuals who can look at those figures and continue to deny that global warming and climate change are real issues are equivalent to those people who still insist that the world is flat. And yet, these individuals sadly include the current President of the United States, Donald Trump, the current President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro, and I say this with great regret given what his country is currently experiencing, the current Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison.”

He added: “But there's something bitterly sad that these three leaders I mentioned, have all seen raging wildfires in their countries over the last year in California, in the Amazon, and now on the eastern coast of Australia.”

He said unless there was change these fires would become “the new normal” and said: “And facing a challenge of that scale, we have to recognise one thing, what we do alone in the United Kingdom will make not a jot of difference to the global problems that we all face.

“So what we need instead is what my friend the Shadow Foreign Secretary called for a year ago, the globalisation of the Green New Deal. The proposition is that we help every country in the world and indeed use our way to the United Nations to oblige every country to use the natural resources at their disposal, whether it be wind power, tidal power, or solar power to move rapidly towards a zero carbon economy, in the process, creating millions of new jobs.”

He added: “Britain led the industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. We are in a very good position to lead this green revolution and I urge the government to take that lead.”