THE CONSERVATIVES say Phelim Mac Cafferty should have stayed in the city to focus on Brighton’s “poor” climate change performance instead of flying to COP26.

The leader of Brighton and Hove City Council has faced a wave of criticism after The Argus revealed he flew to the climate change conference on Friday.

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

Conservative climate change spokesman Samer Bagaeen said Cllr Mac Cafferty should “focus on his own backyard before lecturing the world on climate change”.

“The leader of the council’s trip to Glasgow to attend a protest is emblematic of the Greens as a party of protest that will not take responsibility for its own actions” he said.

“He has a responsibility to run the city, not attend UN climate conferences. He needs to come back to Brighton and Hove and do the job he is paid to do, not lecture the world.”

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.

It comes after the council was recently given the lowest possible rating for its performance on climate change by the Carbon Disclosure Project.

“This is the responsibility of the Greens and Labour, which have run Brighton and Hove for ten years and have a coalition agreement in place on climate change policy,” Cllr Bagaeen added.

“The residents of the city want climate leadership and it looks like they will not get it from this leader of the council.”

The Argus: Protests in Glasgow Protests in Glasgow

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.

“Caroline Lucas said previously that flying to Glasgow would send the worst possible message to COP26 and to the activists on the ground,” Cllr Bagaeen said.

“To quote our Green MP, ‘every single tonne of carbon emitted makes a difference.’ The leader of the council should be held to account for his emissions. We do not want to hear more ‘blah, blah, blah’.”

Yesterday, The Argus asked the politician, who co-chairs the council’s carbon neutral working group, how he got to Scotland.

He admitted his blunder, apologising for the 1 hour 20-minute flight - saying he had been worried his train might be cancelled.

“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,” he said.