This comes despite losing him his seat in Richmond Park to Lib Dem Sarah Olney in last week’s election, and follows the elevation of fellow Conservative Nicky Morgan to the House of Lords earlier this week.
In September, Mr Goldsmith was promoted to Minister of State within Defra, having only joined in July. The promotion meant Mr Goldsmith joined cabinet meetings alongside other senior ministers (see letsrecycle.com story).
Campaigns
Mr Goldsmith has been a long-time campaigner on environmental issues. He is a prominent member of the Conservative Environment Network and was formerly a member of the Environmental Audit Committee.
He also served as vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on the prevention of plastic waste.
Mr Goldsmith campaigned for the introduction of a carrier bag charge during his time in parliament and supported a motion calling for an end to the export of plastic waste for recycling earlier this year.
During his bid to become the mayor of London in 2016 he spoke in favour of harmonising collection systems in the capital through the establishment of a ‘London Guarantee’, which would have seen local authorities sign up to a common set of London-wide collection standards (see letsrecycle.com story).
Career
First elected as an MP for his home seat of Richmond Park and North Kingston in 2010, he previously worked for the California-based environmental economics thinktank Redefining Progress and later as a researcher for the International Society for Ecology and Culture.
He was also the editor of the Ecologist magazine from 1998 to 2006, before being appointed by then Conservative leader David Cameron to head the party’s environmental policies unit.
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