British environmentalist George Monbiot has accused the government of suppressing the release of a damning report exposing the imminent collapse of our ecosystem — described as a “security risk” in the report. Labour is once again in the spotlight for their condemnable handling of this issue.

After multiple setbacks and dithering from Westminster, the national security assessment is now available, and warns of an impending global meltdown.

The authors of the assessment warned that:

Global ecosystem degradation and collapse threaten UK national security and prosperity. The world is already experiencing impacts including crop failures, intensified natural disasters and infectious disease outbreaks […] Threats will increase with degradation and intensify with collapse. Without major intervention to reverse the current trend, this is highly likely to continue to 2050 and beyond.

The risks are grave. So why was the assessment suppressed by Labour? Bear in mind, Monbiot calls this the:

most important document published by the UK government since the general election.

Keeping us in the dark

The report was due for public release in autumn 2025. The Times said it took a fierce freedom of information battle to get a reportedly “abridged version” released last month. According to Monbiot:

Apparatchiks in Downing Street sought to make it disappear. Apparently there were two reasons:

(1) because its conclusions were “too negative”

(2) because it would draw attention to the government’s failure to act.

Explaining why Starmer’s Labour government resisted publication, Monbiot said the following:

When the report at last appeared, thanks to an FoI (freedom of information) request lodged by the Green Alliance, The Times reported that it had been significantly “abridged”, I expect by the same goons. Some of its starkest conclusions had been omitted.

He added:

Even so, the assessment – believed to have been compiled by the joint intelligence committee (on which the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ sit) – is not exactly reassuring.

The brink of collapse

Monbiot accused the Labour government of creating a false divide between economic growth, and tackling the climate crisis:

It’s not hard to see how inconvenient this report is for Starmer’s government, which has repeatedly sought to invent a conflict between prosperity and environmental protection.

He lamented that the report appeared “hastily and crudely truncated”. Monbiot asked whether:

the full assessment might also have named some other pressing security threats

For example, the connection between damaging industries and the far-right:

One is the way in which fossil fuel, meat, and livestock producers have been funding far-right movements, to stifle environmental protection measures that would reduce their profits.

He called this a “major driver” of “the fascistic politics” seen in the US.

So it seems that Downing Street — under the leadership of the Labour party — has gagged its own intelligence services. That is telling. MI6, MI5 and GCHQ provide disinterested assessments of the world as it is — in theory, anyway.

The decision to ignore, doctor or suppress their findings is a political one. It suggests Labour’s commitments are to something else entirely. And that something feels like the naked self-interest of big capital.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

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