Rishi Sunak has hit back at Zac Goldsmith after he quit the government with a furious attack on the prime minister.
The PM said he told the Tory peer to apologise for criticising the Commons privileges committee over its investigation into Boris Johnson.
That came after the committee condemned a number of Johnson allies - including Goldsmith - in a report published yesterday.
Lord Goldsmith resigned as a Foreign Office minister on Friday morning with a scathing attack on the prime minister’s record on the environment.
He said: “The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested.”
But speaking at a press conference in Downing Street this afternoon, the prime minister challenged Goldsmith’s version of events.
“He was asked to apologise for his comments about the privileges committee because I felt they were incompatible with his posit was a minister,” Sunak said.
“He has obviously chosen to take a diffirent course.”
His comments marked a dramatic shift from yesterday, when Downing Street said the PM retained “full confidence” in Goldsmith.
The prime minister added he was “proud” of his record on the environment.
“The UK has played a leadership role globally and we will continue to do so,” he said.
On Thursday, Goldsmith was among the Johnson allies condemned for criticising the privileges committee’s probe into the former PM.
The peer retweeted a tweet calling the inquiry a witch hunt and kangaroo court.
The committee said Goldsmith and others - including Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg - may have committed a contempt of parliament and suggested they be punished. MPs will debate and vote on the committee’s suggestion on July 10.
In his resignation letter, Goldsmith said he was “horrified” by Sunak’s “apathy” towards climate change and nature, accusing him of having “abandoned” promises made to voters.
“The problem is not that the government is hostile to the environment, it is that you, our prime minister, are simply uninterested,” he said. “This government’s apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced makes continuing in my current role untenable.”
In a letter to Goldsmith sent on Friday, Sunak dismissed his claim he did not care about the environment.
“Even in the last few weeks we have taken this international leadership int the recent G7 leader’s summit,” he said