Monday briefing: Why Rishi Sunak stopped worrying about the climate crisis

In today's newsletter: The prime minister has tactically retreated from talking about the environment - but is it a route to electoral success?

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Good morning. A sense of despondency is permeating Conservative party HQ. The government is flailing after losing two byelections and winning a third by the narrowest of margins. Inflation is not coming down as quickly as they would have hoped. The party's small boats bill suffered a series of defeats in the House of Lords last month, as Channel crossings by people seeking asylum hit record highs. And senior Tories are expecting MPs to quit in droves before the next election after years of political chaos and turmoil have left them exhausted.

Rishi Sunak knows that, with an election looming, he needs to come up with a strategy and create a clear dividing line between his party and Labour. And it seems as though the lesson the prime minister has taken from that slim byelection victory in Uxbridge and South Ruislip - where opposition to an extension of London's ultra-low emission zone formed the central plank of the campaign - is that taking aim at the green agenda is a route to electoral success. Sunak has suggested that his government is willing to roll back, delay and even abandon climate policies that could come at a cost to consumers - and spent the weekend burnishing his pro-car credentials, with plans to restrict local councils' ability to institute a host of traffic calming and environmental measures.

Society | The financial cost of the Grenfell Tower disaster has reached nearly 1.2bn - 4,000 times the amount that was saved by replacing fire-retardant cladding with a cheaper combustible alternative during the disastrous refurbishment. Most of the cost is coming from the public purse, dwarfing the compensation to the bereaved and survivors paid by companies involved in wrapping the west London council's block in combustible materials.

Pakistan | At least 44 people have been killed and more than 150 injured in a bomb blast in the north-west of Pakistan that targeted a political party gathering. Police said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomb, adding that the initial investigations suggested the Islamic State group (IS) could be behind the attack, though investigations are ongoing. No group has claimed responsibility.

NHS | A leading spinal surgeon's botched operations left patients with serious blood loss, long-term pain and mobility problems, a damning report has revealed. It found that John Bradley Williamson's unacceptable and unprofessional behaviour" severely or moderately harmed 20 patients at Salford Royal hospital, once regarded as one of England's safest.

Finance | The biggest regulatory shake-up of UK retail financial services for two decades will come into force on Monday in an effort to crack down on rip-offs and poor customer service. Experts are predicting that some older financial products that do not meet the new standards are likely to be removed from sale.

Policing | The Metropolitan police is expanding its use of precision policing", an approach that uses crime data to focus police activity, in an effort to remove some of the most serious criminals from the streets.