THE LEADER of the council will remain in charge despite being caught flying to COP26.

Phelim Mac Cafferty was under pressure to resign after it was revealed he flew to Glasgow to attend the climate change conference last week.

However, the Brighton and Hove City Council leader has received the backing of the Green Party.

A Green Party spokesman said the party has “full faith” in Cllr Mac Cafferty’s ability to lead the council.

“Cllr Phélim Mac Cafferty made a regrettably bad decision in his travel choice when representing the City Council at a COP26 event in Glasgow.

“We believe that he issued uncharacteristically poor judgement in choosing to travel by plane for this event and it is correct that he has apologised for this. We have received assurances that this will not be repeated.

“As Greens, we believe in system-wide change and that individuals must be enabled to make the best choice for the environment. For many, this is not the easiest thing to do.

“The right decision for the planet must be made to be the right decision for people too, which is why we argue that climate and social justice are intertwined.

“Individuals for too long have borne the brunt of criticism on acting on climate change, which is why we campaign on affordable, accessible infrastructure and on ensuring that big businesses and governments make the changes needed to tackle the climate crisis.

“As individuals, we are not perfect, and we make mistakes. As a group of councillors, we applaud Cllr Mac Cafferty’s honest and welcome apology. As convenor of our group over the last 5 years, he has provided strong and consistent leadership and one mistake does not outweigh this.”

Cllr Mac Cafferty took a plane from London to Glasgow on the same day he criticised the government for a "lack of action" over climate change.

After completing the 460-mile journey, Cllr Mac Cafferty made a speech on cutting carbon emissions and appeared at a protest march, led by Greta Thunberg, calling for world leaders to stop temperatures rising.

The politician, who co-chairs Brighton and Hove City Council’s carbon neutral working group, admitted the blunder after The Argus questioned how he travelled to Scotland.

Cllr Mac Cafferty, leader of the city’s Green Party, apologised for taking flight for around 1 hour 20 minutes - saying he had been worried his train might be cancelled.

He told The Argus: "In the Friday evening just gone, I took a flight from London to Glasgow to attend COP26 where I had been invited to represent the city at a presentation of the Glasgow Declaration on Saturday morning.

“This decision to fly was a major failure of my judgement which goes against my political group’s pledges and principles, and I unreservedly apologise.”

The blunder comes just days after Cllr Mac Cafferty claimed in his weekly Argus column that Brighton and Hove was "leading the way on climate and social action".

Green MP Caroline Lucas was also in Glasgow for the conference but confirmed to The Argus that she had travelled by train.

Cllr Mac Cafferty said he had been “concerned about the unreliability of the rail network” which previously left people struggling to get to COP26.