Last month we went to the polls in a General Election that was the most important for nature in a generation. Now the results are in and the Labour Party have won a significant majority, signaling a change of direction for the country. In turn, this will mean there will be changes in policies that effect our environment, as well as opportunities to get the change we need to enable nature’s recovery.

Shortly after the General Election was announced, The Wildlife Trusts commissioned a poll to gauge whether the public think political parties are doing enough to tackle the nature and climate crises and how important environmental issues will be in deciding their vote. 

It revealed that the environmental policies offered by candidates play a big role in swaying people’s vote when they enter the polling station. Almost four in 10 said they will vote based on environmental issues and most people consider environmental issues to be at least as important as other issues facing the country.

Throughout the election campaign, it became clear that people know that our natural world is in crisis and want politicians to make the bold and ambitious commitments to reverse the decline. People demonstrated this with their feet - over 60,000 people marched through London at the end of the campaign urging faster action to ‘restore nature now’.

Now that the campaign is over, and as the dust settles, we recognise that nature is the thing that brings us all together, and that nature is intrinsic to our survival and prosperity as a species. It ensures we have enough food to eat and clean water to drink. It is the ultimate unifier, something we all have in common. No matter what your background is, where you live, or what your political leanings are, a healthy natural environment is essential to us all.

At Yorkshire Wildlife Trust we will be working independently, and with the larger Wildlife Trust movement, to urge the new government (as we did with the old one) to honour the nature positive promises made in their manifesto, and to defend nature from any negative impacts of their actions.

Look out for our next blog in which we will be setting out our view on the announcements so far including planning reforms and the increase in renewable energy production, as well as our big asks of this new government to ensure they do what is really needed.