Responding to Michael Gove's speech at Conservative Party conference today, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said:

"Michael Gove talks a good game on the environment – but his focus is forever on tidying up, rather than tackling the cause of the mess.

"Today's only real announcement was a plan to redirect food waste from shops to dinner tables – but without strong measures to change supermarkets' strict cosmetic standards, farmers will keep having to plough perfectly good produce back into the ground.

"Behind the scenes at his Department, he's expanding the badger cull, back-peddling on a plan to ban live animal exports and cutting Natural England to the bone.

"This is hug-a-husky politics. We need an Environment Secretary brave enough to back up warm words with action to end environmental destruction at its source."