Rishi Sunak may be a devoted “Swiftie” – but the prime minister’s government has provoked fury by reportedly blocking efforts to help save real swifts from extinction.
Mr Sunak last summer went to a Taylor Swift concert in Los Angeles and even took part in a cycling class set to the “Shake It Off” singer’s music.
But the Tories are said to have vetoed a popular campaign to change the law to create homes for swifts, the globally threatened bird species whose populations have plummeted by more than half in the UK.
The government denied it had blocked the move – but campaigners claim a purported official letter proves ministers “have no plans to legislate”.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Rishi Sunak may be a devoted “Swiftie” – but the prime minister’s government has provoked fury by reportedly blocking efforts to help save real swifts from extinction.
Mr Sunak last summer went to a Taylor Swift concert in Los Angeles and even took part in a cycling class set to the “Shake It Off” singer’s music.
But the Tories are said to have vetoed a popular campaign to change the law to create homes for swifts, the globally threatened bird species whose populations have plummeted by more than half in the UK.
The government denied it had blocked the move – but campaigners claim a purported official letter proves ministers “have no plans to legislate”.
Swift populations in the UK plummeted by 60 per cent between 1995 and 2020, according to the British Trust for Ornithology, leading to the bird being added to the red list of species most threatened.
In February, nature writer Hannah Bourne-Taylor, who has led the campaign, walked naked across part of London to lobby for what she said was an urgent need to change the law for the “iconic and irreplaceable” bird, and had a meeting with levelling-up secretary Michael Gove.
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