The British prime minister has refused to join the international chorus of condemnation against U.S. President Donald J. Trump for pulling out of the Paris climate deal.
Theresa May has come under intense pressure in the UK to speak out robustly, but would only say she was “disappointed” as well as reasserting the UK’s commitment to the Paris accord.
“It’s up to the President of the United States to decide what position the United States is going to take on this matter,” she told reporters on the campaign trail.
Mrs. May also defended her decision not to sign a joint statement along with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and Italy’s Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.
The European leaders said they remained committed to the “irreversible” accord and regarded it as “a cornerstone in the co-operation between our countries, for effectively and timely tackling climate change”.
The office of the prime minister said in a statement: “I made the UK’s position clear to President Trump last week at the G7 meeting as did the other G7 leaders, and I made the UK’s position clear to President Trump last night.
“Canada and Japan have not signed that letter. Neither has the UK but we all have the same view that we remain committed to the Paris Agreement.”
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, accused the prime minister of a “dereliction of duty to our country and our planet” for failing to issue a stronger condemnation.
He told an election rally in York: “Given the chance to present a united front with our international partners, she has instead opted for silence and subservience to Donald Trump.”
The former Labour leader Ed Miliband was even more outspoken, telling BBC Radio’s World at One that Mr. May was being “weak and feeble and spineless”.
“Disappointment is when your football team loses a match. It is not when somebody makes a devastating decision like this. America is one of the two largest emitters in the world, along with China”, he said.
“This decision was backed by every country in the world apart from Syria, which is in the middle of a civil war, and Nicaragua, which wanted us to go further. American leadership was so important to this.”
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