The cat is slipping out of the bag and David Cameron’s battle with climate change deniers in his party is now in the open. About time, too.

I shared a platform with Tory MP Andrew Tyrie a few weeks ago and heard at first hand his silly assertions that the poor need fossil fuels. They don’t. They need energy (from whatever source) and they need insulation.

Nigel Lawson, ex-Tory Minister, regularly peddles his anti-climate change views on behalf of his consultancy company’s corporate clients, who include many of the world’s oil companies.

As John Prescott has said, Lawson’s consultancy firm it is not so much a think tank as a petrol tank.

The sad thing about these people is that they advance no plans for the future of this nation, only a desire to ensure bankers run everything, oil companies remain top dogs, and the economy stays just the way it is.

I do not doubt Mr Cameron’s sincerity on environmental issues, but it is clear that his own party is only tolerating his view in the hope that he can get them elected.

If they are elected, I predict Mr Cameron will have only months to either assert his authority or be brushed aside by a party that seems completely out of touch with the challenges of the 21st century. The Tories are unfit to run the country because they fail to understand either the scale of the challenge facing us with climate change or the scale of the opportunity to transform our economy and lead the world by responding to climate change in a positive, innovative, coherent and strategic fashion.

As for Labour, what can you say about a Government that is so committed to urgent action that it says it will introduce smart meters by 2020?

Christian Vassie, Parliamentary spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats in York Central, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.