Green campaigner Lord Goldsmith loses environment job

Lord Zac Goldsmith has been sacked as an environment minister as part of a reshuffle under new PM Liz Truss.

According to the Guardian, the Conservative peer has lost his domestic animal welfare brief and will no longer attend cabinet.

But it is understood he will remain a minister at the Foreign Office, a role he has held since September 2020.

No 10 had halted its reshuffle after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Lord Goldsmith, a long-time environmentalist, was a close ally of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his wife Carrie.

The Guardian, which first reported his departure, said he told staff at the environment department he was "very sad" to be leaving in a farewell letter.

The newspaper reported there were also fears that a trophy hunting ban he championed, which faced opposition from some Conservative MPs, could be dropped.

Lord Goldsmith has previously criticised the green record of Mark Spencer, who was made an environment minister by Ms Truss last week.

In a tweet days after Mr Johnson's resignation in July after a cabinet revolt, he described Mr Spencer as "the biggest blocker of measures to protect nature, biodiversity, [and] animal welfare".

Suggesting that Rishi Sunak could make Mr Spencer environment secretary if he won the Tory leadership, Lord Goldsmith said his appointment to the role would be "grim news for nature".