Zac Goldsmith has been sacked as the Prime Minister’s climate change envoy for defying party bosses in a crucial Commons vote.

The Richmond Park MP, a former editor of the Ecologist magazine, was withdrawn from the role just days before his first engagement discussing Gabon’s threatened rain forests with the African country’s president.

The punishment came after Mr Goldsmith joined 80 Conservative MPs voting against the party line of opposing a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union last month.

The MP’s father Sir James Goldsmith founded the Referendum Party, which called for a ballot on Europe at the 1997 election.

Mr Goldsmith said: “I would prefer it of course if the Government had resisted imposing a three-line whip, because it could so easily have avoided all these problems.

“But I made a pledge to constituents, in letters and at public meetings, and there was never a chance I’d break it.

“I strongly believe that reversing world forest decline is among the most important battles we face as a species, and I will do everything I can to support the Government in its pursuit of solutions. We are already showing leadership internationally, and I have no doubt that will continue.”