Boris Johnson admits his previous views on climate change were wrong

Prime minister Boris Johnson has admitted that his previous views on climate change were “wrong”.

When asked about past comments by new international trade secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan that expressed skepticism over global warming, Johnson admitted that he had previously been “wrong” on the issue.

Speaking to reporters during his flight to the United Nations general assembly in New York today, he said: “I don’t want to encourage you, but if you were to excavate some of my articles from 20 years ago you might find comments I made, obiter dicta, about climate change that weren’t entirely supportive of the current struggle.”

He explained that “the facts change and people change their minds and change their views and that’s very important too,” and went on to say that he thought Trevelyan “will do an outstanding job as secretary of state for international trade.”

Last week shadow international trade secretary, Emily Thornberry highlighted a series of tweets sent by Trevelyan between 2010 and 2012 in which she explicitly denied the science of global warming, stating in one post: “Clear evidence that the ice caps aren’t melting after all, to counter those doom-mongers and global warming fanatics”.