Tory environment spokesman Oliver Letwin yesterday signalled an about-turn in Tory policy on environmental taxes. He said that the party would fight the introduction of any new green taxes as they were against the government using them to raise money for the Treasury.

It was a Tory minister, John Gummer, who introduced the first green tax - the landfill tax - in 1994. Although the Conservatives remain committed to recycling and opposed to the building of new incinerators, the policy change might undermine the party's attempts to woo the environmental vote.

The change also distances them from some of the biggest waste disposal companies who actually support the tax and have called for higher taxes to increase the levels of recycling.