A group of pupils left three local schools to visit MP Michelle Donelan’s office and ask her about her voting record on climate change and nature.

The young pupils were members of Early Earth Protectors, an ecology group for children in Chippenham.

On Friday, December 8, they arrived at the Chippenham MP’s office to ask her questions around her voting choices.

They had used the VoteClimate website to see she had 19 opportunities to vote for climate and nature since 2015 and voted “against climate and nature” 18 times.

Mati, 9, had prepared the following question: “Think of your child’s future, do you want them to live with forests thriving with life and birds, hedgehogs, foxes, or would you rather it is just wildfires, and towns full of smoke from factories and roads, with air smelling like pollution?”

Eira, 8, asked: “Do you like wildlife and know how much we need it?”

According to the group, when asked about the government-funded Climate Change Committee’s 'Sixth Carbon Budget' report, Donelan confirmed she had not read it.

After meeting the MP, 9-year-old Milena said: "I don't think they are doing enough to protect the world, and they're not protecting the next generation." 

The children said they hoped their meeting will be remembered by the MP when she is next in parliament.

Donelan has been the Conservative MP for Chippenham since 2015 and is the current Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology.

When approached for a comment, she said: “I am always grateful to groups of children for coming to see me and engaging with politics and current affairs.

“The children asked specific questions on my voting record based on information from a website that collates voting data, the problem with these websites is they provide no context for the way an MP has voted.

“I was very happy to explain that this Government has taken significant action on Climate Change and the Environment.

“In March we published the most comprehensive plan to meet net zero in the world and cut emissions more any other economy on the planet.

“Our ambitious plans are world leading.

"Our focus also is on supporting and encouraging the rest of the world who are responsible for 99% of emissions and that’s why we paid such a leading role in COP28.”