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Government plans to sell-off part of England's public forests are a "bad policy looking for an excuse", MPs have been told.
Shadow Commons leader Hilary Benn has dismissed government claims that there had been a conflict of interest in the Forestry Commission's role as both a regulator and timber supplier.
He also hit out at Liberal Democrat MPs for backing the policy, which he said, "they must in their heart loathe".
"At least their president has had the courage to speak out and to vote with us."
During questions on forthcoming parliamentary business, the former environment secretary said that in his three years in the role, "not a single person raised this with me".
Benn told the Commons: "So the House is entitled to know what Mrs Spelman has discovered in just nine months that none of her predecessors worried about for the 90 years since the Forestry Commission was founded.
"This is a bad policy looking for an excuse."
He added: "I must hand it to the government, given that it might not save any money, it takes a special kind of genius to unite just about everybody else against you.
"Even Number 10 is now briefing that it doesn't think it is being well presented."
In response, Commons leader Sir George Young declined the request for an additional debate on the issue.
Sir George said the environment secretary had "dismissed many of the myths" around the proposals.
He said they will provide an opportunity to "improve the levels of public benefit from our woodlands".
Article Comments
I could not help but laugh: it might have been Margaret Thatcher talking of her plans to privatise the car and energy industries and I expect I don't need to go into these issues and their history!
I expect the Tories are looking to selling off to multinationals and turning forests into some kind of woodland theme-park. Whatever the case may be I have some strange ideas about the necessity of land, national security, health and energy resources being the responsibility of the government. Otherwise we are talking middle ages when the land belonged to the rich and was a source of toil, not beauty for all others.
Eugenia Raptis
4th Feb 2011 at 8:10 am
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