A number of wealthy climate sceptics are giving funding to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, rightwing Conservatives, and the climate science-denying thinktank the Global Warming Policy Foundation. But who are they and how are they linked?
The biggest donor to the Reform party this year is the shipping magnate Terence Mordaunt, the head of First Corporate Shipping. His personal company, Corporate Consultants Ltd, has given £200,000 to Reform over the past 12 months. He was previously chair of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) and is now a trustee.
Reform was formerly known as the Brexit party and is the third highest polling political party, aiming to win over rightwing voters who are disenchanted with the Tories. It states on its website: “Net zero means reducing man made CO2 emissions to stop climate change. It can’t. Climate change has happened for millions of years, before man made CO2 emissions, and will always change. We are better to adapt to warming, rather than pretend we can stop it. Up to 10 times more people die of cold than warmth.” The party advocates for scrapping net zero targets and increasing fracking and new nuclear power.
The GWPF is the thinktank set up by the former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson in 2009. Since then, it has released reports claiming rising carbon dioxide levels are good for humanity, and opposed climate action. Though Mordaunt has not made many public proclamations on climate science, he said when joining the GWPF in 2017: “I am delighted to continue my support for the GWPF which has brought much needed rigour into the climate debate.” His donations could shed some light on his views; his company also donated £100k to Vote Leave in 2016.
Mordaunt is also, according to DeSmog, a significant donor to the Conservative party, having donated £34,600between 2003 and 2009, according to electoral register data. His companies have also donated at least £135,000 to the party since 2008, including a £25,000 donation in 2017.
Another wealthy donor to Reform is Jeremy Hosking, who has more than £100m invested in fossil fuel interests. To date, Hosking has donated £1,578,000 to the rightwing party. Hosking told the Guardian: “The fossil fuel investments are/were made by Hosking Partners Llp on behalf of its institutional clients. I believe my donations to Reform were in 2019 when that party was campaigning as the Brexit party. But I don’t think they had a net zero policy at that time.”
Meanwhile, an investigation by the Democracy for Sale newsletter has found that Jon Moynihan, a Conservative donor who has given more than £700,000 to the Tories and was given a peerage by the ex-prime minister Liz Truss, is also making donations to the GWPF.
Moynihan, who was chair of the Vote Leave campaign during the Brexit referendum, has given £25,000 to GWPF since 2018; GWPF does not reveal its donors and Moynihan, who made the donations through his foundation Moynitrust, has not been reported as a GWPF donor before.
The Tory peer Lord Nigel Vinson was also connected to Liz Truss, and personally supported Truss’s leadership bid with a £5,000 donation in 2022. The new investigation has revealed that Vinson has given £9,000 to GWPF since 2019.
The Tory peer Michael Hintze, who has given more than £4.8m to the Conservatives, is also a GWPF donor. He has donated to the energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, who has lambasted Labour’s plans to end North Sea oil and gas extraction and criticised “net zero zealots”. He has also given a gift to Kemi Badenoch, who has said net zero could “bankrupt” the UK.
Peter Geoghegan, from Democracy for Sale, said: “The GWPF refuses to declare its donors but our investigation has found that the most prominent face of climate change denial in Britain is being bankrolled by Conservative donors with seats in the House of Lords, including one appointed in Liz Truss’s controversial resignation honours list.
“That GWPF is being funded by Tory peers and has close ties to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK goes to show how climate denying money is influencing our politics.”
Mordaunt declined to comment. Hintze, Vinson and Moynihan did not respond to requests for comment.
