Ex-Green Party leader Caroline Lucas has apologised for “what was not the best comparison” between those who deny the impact of climate change and Holocaust denial.

The MP for Brighton Pavillion told the JC that during an appearance on LBC radio on Wednesday she had “used the example of the Holocaust to make the point that, like climate change, it is a fact beyond dispute.”

She added that “giving air time to anyone that questions the existence of either cannot be justified in the name of balance. I apologise for what was not the best comparison.”

Discussing climate change with host Shelagh Fogarty, Ms Lucas, who has become an outspoken supporter of the People’s Vote campaign, was asked how do you tackle disinterest or refusal to accept climate change.

She replied: "Well I think what we need to do is to look at the fact that the vast vast majority, 99.999 per cent of the world’s best scientists believe that climate change is happening and believe that it is being driven by human activities...

"Politicians can argue about it but ultimately we need to look at where the vast majority of scientific evidence lies and I do think that the media has a responsibility on that too.

“You know we don’t generally now have people disputing the Holocaust on the media and having that as a sensible conversation.

"I really hope that we can just move on now and get on to what needs to be done because the urgency is overwhelming and I think the real debate needs to be about how we get our emissions down.”

The MP has reportedly made the comparison before. In 2007, when Ms Lucas was an MEP, the Brighton Argus reported she said: "The media's attempt to seem balanced is in fact distorting the public's understanding of perhaps the most pressing issue facing us all today - and it's tragic.

"It doesn't make any sense: would the media insist on having a holocaust-denier to balance any report about the Second World War?"