DAVID CAMERON is to interrupt his local election campaign in order to go on a fact-finding mission to northern Norway to examine the disappearing polar ice-caps.

The Conservative leader will be travelling by dog sled to the remote research station of Ny-Alesund, accompanied by a BBC film crew, to see the effects of global warming.

The three-day trip, which begins after Prime Minister’s Questions on April 19, has upset some members of his party because it is so close to the local elections on May 4.

One shadow minister said: “I think it really is barmy to be jetting off to do this in the middle of the campaign. There will be Conservatives all over the country knocking on doors and where is he? He’s off looking at glaciers in Norway. I’m afraid he’s missing the target.”

Some Tories, including Francis Maude, the party chairman, have been lowering expectations before the local elections. Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher, of the University of Plymouth, said that the Tories were defending a “high-water mark” and could lose as many as 100 seats.

Mr Cameron disappointed activists at the spring conference by failing to mention Tory heartland issues such as crime in his speech. Instead he focused on the environment and poverty and his programme to modernise the party.

Ed Vaizey, Mr Cameron’s speech writer, told Sky News yesterday that the leader’s honeymoon period was over.

He said: “In a sense, David Cameron wants it to be over and he recognises it’s over. The message that is coming out of the Manchester conference is again to say to the Tory party, ‘Don’t just change your leader and then walk away and assume everything is going to come right.’ ” The MP for Wantage added that the “root and branch” reform of the Conservative Party must continue.

The Tory leader will fly into Longyearbyen on the island of Svalbard, made famous in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. From this costal location inside the Arctic Circle he will be able to see the glacier retreating because of global warming.

From there, he will travel to Ny-Alesund by dog sled, where he will meet scientists from the WWF education research centre. Ny-Alesund is the world’s most northern settlement and home to only 35 people, who work for the various research stations.

Afterwards he is expected to fly to Oslo for meetings with politicians, though these have yet to be confirmed.

A Tory spokeswoman said that by going on the trip during the run-up to the local elections, Mr Cameron, who told the spring conference on Saturday that he wanted to lead a “green revolution”, was re- affirming his commitment to the environment.

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