GREEN MP Caroline Lucas has slammed the Queen’s Speech for failing to address the climate emergency.

The Prince of Wales stood in for the Queen to outline the policies and laws proposed by the government for the new parliamentary session.

Proposals include a crackdown on “guerrilla protests”, the sell-off of broadcaster Channel 4, the tearing up of EU regulations following Brexit, and reforms to the planning system.

However, the MP for Brighton Pavilion said there was “a climate-shaped hole” at the heart of the speech today.

She said: “On the very day when we’re hearing predictions from the Met Office that the probability of surpassing 1.5C heating within five years is now 50 per cent, the government has utterly failed to acknowledge, let alone address, this crisis.

“We desperately needed the government to tackle the root cause of our energy and climate security problem, and adopt a fossil fuel treaty to keep fossil fuels in the ground.”

Whilst Ms Lucas welcomed plans for an Energy Security Bill, she said the proposals ring hollow without a “retrofit revolution”, and expressed disappointment at the absence of a Nature Bill in the speech.

She said: “It’s a great irony that Prince Charles, such an ardent advocate for the environment, was forced to read out a speech which had nothing on the environment, and which dropped all plans for a ban on foie gras, fur imports, and trophy hunting.”

Ms Lucas criticised plans to repeal and replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights as a “crackdown on the very core of our human rights”.

“This speech was the embodiment of a Tory party which is hell-bent on increasing its own powers while turning a willfully blind eye to the biggest crises of our time,” she said.

Other measures outlined in the speech earlier today include plans to protect private renters and scrap no-fault evictions, a proposed ban on conversion therapy that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation, and the creation of a new public sector body to oversee Britain’s railways.