Tories fear losing half their seats in May local polls as pre-election budget flops

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/10/tories-fear-losing-half-seats-may-local-polls-councils-election-budget-rishi-sunak

Victories in councils won during Boris Johnson’s ‘vaccine boost’ of 2021 face wipeout, leaving Rishi Sunak’s regime in peril

Senior Tories are braced for a catastrophic set of local elections that will see a collapse in council seats won at the peak of the “vaccine bounce” enjoyed by Boris Johnson.

Rishi Sunak’s allies regard the results as the most dangerous moment remaining for the prime minister before the general election. While many of Sunak’s Tory critics have little appetite for removing him, some said they were asking themselves: “What is there to lose?” after a pre-election budget that has failed to increase Conservative support.

Sunak, under pressure to explain how he would pay for his pledge to abolish national insurance contributions by the end of the next parliament, has expanded on the measures in the budget by announcing that he is preparing a new benefits squeeze to fund it.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/10/tories-fear-losing-half-seats-may-local-polls-councils-election-budget-rishi-sunak

Continue ReadingTories fear losing half their seats in May local polls as pre-election budget flops

GB News reports 40% increase in losses to £42 million

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/gb-news-reports-40-increase-in-losses-to-42-million/

GB News is owned by All Perspectives Ltd, a holding company backed by hedge fund millionaire Sir Paul Marshall and investment firm Legatum, amongst others, with Marshall pumping millions into the channel.

Right-wing channel GB News is reporting a 40% increase in losses to over £42 million.

Pre-tax losses at the broadcaster hit £42.4m for the year to the end of May 2023, up from £30.7m a year earlier.

It comes as GB News continues to splash the cash on a number of high-profile presenters, including the likes of Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees Mogg and Boris Johnson. The channel’s wage bill soared to £21.2m last year, from £12.7m in 2022 as the average number of monthly employees rose to 295, up from 175 in 2022.

https://leftfootforward.org/2024/03/gb-news-reports-40-increase-in-losses-to-42-million/

Continue ReadingGB News reports 40% increase in losses to £42 million

Extremism adviser has received funding from Israel lobbyists, Declassified UK finds

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/extremism-adviser-has-received-funding-israel-lobby-declassified-uk-finds

MP for Barrow and Furness, John Woodcock

THE government’s “independent” adviser on political violence and disruption has received funding from pro-Israel groups while pushing for a crackdown on pro-Palestine protests, Declassified UK revealed today.

Former Labour MP John Woodcock — ennobled as Lord Walney for backing Boris Johnson in the 2019 election — was assigned in 2021 to produce a report investigating “the extreme fringes on both ends of the political spectrum” in Britain.

During his time as a Labour MP, he was appointed chairman of Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) in 2011. He embarked on a trip funded by LFI, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Portland Trust the same year.

Lord Walney also accepted funding from the Australia-Israel Cultural Exchange during his time as an MP.

In January this year, while preparing to deliver his report concerning Palestine protests in Britain, Lord Walney visited Israel as part of a parliamentary delegation organised by the European Leadership Network, with flights and accommodation paid for by the organisation. He kept the trip under wraps and did not post about it on social media.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/extremism-adviser-has-received-funding-israel-lobby-declassified-uk-finds

Continue ReadingExtremism adviser has received funding from Israel lobbyists, Declassified UK finds

Morning Star: Ever-increasing militarisation leaves us all poorer

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-ever-increasing-militarisation-leaves-us-all-poorer

IF THERE was one thing that British listeners should have picked up from Vladimir Putin’s interview last week, it was the intervention by Britain’s then prime minister Boris Johnson over Easter 2022.

Putin confirmed that, just prior to Johnson’s visit, a signed agreement had been reached ratified by the representatives of both Ukraine and Russia and counter-signed by France and Germany.

Johnson’s intervention caused Volodymyr Zelensky to back out of the agreement. Whether Johnson acted alone or on behalf of the US government, or elements within it, we do not know. But it is unlikely that Johnson would have acted without some sort of US sanction.

What we do know are the human consequences. According to the UN, just over a thousand civilians had lost their lives by April 2022. Since then 10 times that number have been killed and the same ratio is likely for the much higher level of military casualties.

Jeremy Hunt’s May 2023 Budget found an extra £11bn for defence. For the forthcoming Budget still more money was being proposed over the weekend “to strengthen Britain’s defences in the Red Sea.” Britain remains the second biggest contributor to Nato after the US.

Yet Britain is a country that can no longer afford the basic infrastructure needed for clean water, rail transport or a national grid capable of connecting existing renewable capacity — let alone a viable health service and effective schooling.

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-ever-increasing-militarisation-leaves-us-all-poorer

dizzy: I disagree with the contention: ” … it is unlikely that Johnson would have acted without some sort of US sanction.” It preseupposes that Johnson was measured in his behaviour when he was often poorly-briefed and out of control. [17/2/24 e.g. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/06/boris-johnson-mistake-could-harm-case-for-nazanin-zaghari-ratcliffe-say-family ]

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Ever-increasing militarisation leaves us all poorer

Humza Yousaf: Scottish government discovered UK Covid policy via the news

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Original article by Finlay Johnston republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Scotland’s first minister also said information would often arrive ‘minutes before the meeting’

Humza Yousaf said he was “deeply frustrated” by the Boris Johnson government’s failure to collaborate with the Scottish government during the pandemic.

Scotland’s first minister, who served as both justice secretary and health secretary in the devolved government during the pandemic, told the Covid inquiry information was often arriving “at the absolute last minute before a meeting”.

“Five, ten minutes before the meeting was to start,” he explained. “Or we were reading about an announcement of a decision already been made by the UK government.”

Yousaf also criticised Alister Jack, the UK government’s secretary of state for Scotland.

“When we were on these phone calls [with the UK government], his [Jack’s] engagement was very limited and there would often be meetings where he wouldn’t say anything at all. Perhaps he was there to observe what was said on the meetings as opposed to necessarily contributing,” Yousaf said.

Jack and the Scottish government have had frequent run-ins, most notably around the Scottish government’s decision to reform gender recognition laws. Jack used his role to block the progressive legislation using unprecedented powers.

The UK’s Covid inquiry is currently focusing on how the Scottish government handled the crisis. Jack is due to give evidence next week.

The inquiry was also shown WhatsApp messages exchanged between Yousaf, while health secretary, and senior health adviser Jason Leitch.

The messages show Leitch advising Yousaf to keep a drink in his hands at all times when attending a function, so he didn’t have to wear a mask. Leitch also wrote “literally no one” was following the government advice, which at the time stated that you must wear a mask when not seated at a dinner.

Jamie Dawson, counsel to the inquiry, pushed Yousaf on whether he was being given a “workaround”.

Yousaf responded: “I never asked for a workaround or how not to comply and neither would I suggest that he was giving that.”

The inquiry saw another exchange of messages between Leitch and Yousaf where the pair discussed Nicola Sturgeon’s decision-making process.

Leitch and Yousaf were discussing a rise in cases in Glasgow in May 2021, when Yousaf became health secretary. The pair also discussed a meeting held between Leitch and Sturgeon relating to the rise in cases.

Leitch wrote: “There was some FM [First Minister] keep it small shenanigans as always, she actually wants none of us.”

Yousaf was asked at the inquiry whether Sturgeon frequently took decisions without full cabinet discussion.

“There were times when the former First Minister needed a tighter cast list[…] But I think this was a classic example of [Leitch] perhaps overspeaking,” he said.

Yousaf also apologised for the Scottish government’s failure to preserve WhatsApp messages and made reference to an announcement made earlier today to the Scottish parliament that there will be an external review into the use of mobile messaging apps.

Original article by Finlay Johnston republished from Open Democracy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence.

Continue ReadingHumza Yousaf: Scottish government discovered UK Covid policy via the news

Nicola Sturgeon regarded Boris Johnson as ‘a fucking clown’ because of his handling of Covid, inquiry learns

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jan/25/uk-politics-latest-news-updates-covid-inquiry-nicola-sturgeon-humza-yousaf-knife-crime

Nicola Sturgeon called Boris Johnson “a fucking clown” in a private message when he announced a further Covid lockdown on 31 October 2020, the inquiry has heard.

Image of Tory idiot Boris Johnson
Tory idiot Boris Johnson

As PA Media reports, at a hearing in Edinburgh this morning the inquiry highlighted WhatsApp messages between Sturgeon and Liz Lloyd, her chief of staff. PA says:

Sturgeon said his address was “fucking excruciating” and that the UK communications were “awful”. Sturgeon also told Lloyd: “His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere.”

Lloyd said she was “offended” on behalf of special advisers everywhere. Sturgeon replied: “He is a fucking clown.”

Lloyd told Sturgeon she wanted a “good old-fashioned rammy” with the UK government so she could “think about something other than sick people” in WhatsApp messages.

Asked about the messages, Lloyd said the Scottish government were “clearly not complimentary about [the UK government’s] communications handling”.

She said: “We had to mitigate the chaos that appeared around some of the decisions they took.”

Junior counsel to the inquiry Usman Tariq asked Lloyd if the relationship between the then first minister and then prime minister had “broken down”.

Lloyd replied: “That overstates what was there to break.”

Commening on Johnson, she said: “He didn’t want to be on those calls, he wasn’t well briefed, he wasn’t listening, engagement with him became slightly pointless. They didn’t get us anywhere. We started with the approach we should work together, in co-ordinated fashion, but a substantive discussion isn’t what we got. The prime minister was reading a script and would largely ignore points made.”

She said Sturgeon’s strong language showed her “frustration” towards Johnson.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2024/jan/25/uk-politics-latest-news-updates-covid-inquiry-nicola-sturgeon-humza-yousaf-knife-crime

Image of Elmo and former Prime Minister Tory idiot Boris Johnson
Image of Elmo (left) and former Prime Minister Tory idiot Boris Johnson (right)
Continue ReadingNicola Sturgeon regarded Boris Johnson as ‘a fucking clown’ because of his handling of Covid, inquiry learns

UK ministers asked to explain fourth delay to Covid wine cellar report

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https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/29/uk-ministers-asked-to-explain-fourth-delay-to-covid-wine-cellar-report

Labour accuses government of holding back data on use of official alcohol stock between March 2020 and 2022

Crates of wine being delivered to No 10 in January 2020. The last official statement on the ‘usage, value, costs and stock levels of the wine cellar’ was made in July 2021. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Ministers have been asked to explain why a report on the UK government’s consumption of wine during the Covid pandemic has been delayed four times over the last year.

Labour said the Foreign Office, which holds the government’s wine collection, should publish the data on its stocks for 2020 to 2022 immediately, as the delay was causing suspicion about how much had been used.

The stock list was originally meant to be published in “early 2023”, was subsequently scheduled for July and then ministers later said it would appear in the autumn.

The last update was from Andrew Mitchell, a Foreign Office minister, who answered a parliamentary question saying it would be published “before the Christmas recess” – but it never materialised by the end of the parliamentary term.

The delays mean it is now two and a half years since the last official statement on the “usage, value, costs and stock levels of the wine cellar” was made in July 2021.

The yet-to-be-published data should cover the period March 2020 to March 2022 – the whole course of the pandemic. Given the cellar is supposed to be used only “to provide guests of the government, from home and overseas, with wines of appropriate quality at reasonable cost”, the report would be expected to show a decline in consumption, given the curbs on indoor gatherings and international travel caused by the Covid pandemic.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/29/uk-ministers-asked-to-explain-fourth-delay-to-covid-wine-cellar-report

dizzy: It’s tempting to imagine a cover-up of that pisshead Boris raiding the wine cellar.

Continue ReadingUK ministers asked to explain fourth delay to Covid wine cellar report

Brexit supporting Daily Express mocked after throwing hissy-fit at UK being excluded from EU rail project

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/brexit-supporting-daily-express-mocked-after-throwing-hissy-fit-at-uk-being-excluded-from-eu-rail-project/

The Daily Express is shocked that the EU has decided to build better infrastructure only in countries which are members of the EU.

The pro-Brexit Daily Express is being brutally mocked after complaining about the fact that the UK is being left out of an EU rail project scheme, designed to connect more major cities across the continent.

A keen supporter of Brexit, which has blasted those who wished to Remain, the Express is shocked that the EU has decided to build better infrastructure only in countries which are members of the EU.

The Daily Express was furious that the UK had been left out of the plans, and ran a story with the headline: “Scheming EU countries leave UK out of ‘landmark’ transport plans as map reveals betrayal.”

Commenting on the article, one social media user posted on X: “The Express helpfully pointing out the EU hasn’t included the UK in their major transport links, because we are no longer part of the EU. 

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/brexit-supporting-daily-express-mocked-after-throwing-hissy-fit-at-uk-being-excluded-from-eu-rail-project/

Continue ReadingBrexit supporting Daily Express mocked after throwing hissy-fit at UK being excluded from EU rail project

Eye watering legal cost of Sunak’s failed bid to withhold WhatsApp messages revealed

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One of the many occasions climate destroyer and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.
One of the many occasions climate destroyer and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak uses a private jet.

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/eye-watering-legal-cost-of-sunaks-failed-bid-to-withhold-whatsapp-messages-revealed/

How much did the Government’s failed legal challenge over a Covid Inquiry request come to

The cost of an unsuccessful legal challenge, launched by Rishi Sunak’s Government to stop ministers from having to hand over all WhatsApp messages to the Covid Inquiry, has come to hundreds of thousands of pounds it has been revealed.

Nearly £200,000 was wasted on legal advice to the Government over its failed legal battle at the High Court, a lengthy Freedom of Information Act battle launched by Liberal Democrat spokesperson Ian Rex-Hawkes has exposed.

The Cabinet Office had disputed the inquiry’s demand to provide two years of WhatsApp messages, initiating a legal challenge under the grounds that some messages were personal and “unambiguously irrelevant”.

But its challenge was rejected and the government was forced to concede to the Covid Inquiry requests.

In its response to the FOI request, the Cabinet Office noted that “of November 2023 the total legal costs for the Judicial Review on the production of Government and Ministerial WhatsApp messages to the Inquiry were £192,739.”

However, despite the money spent and legal battle, both Rishi Sunak and Boris Johnson have claimed to have lost large chunks of WhatsApp messages during the pandemic period anyway.

https://leftfootforward.org/2023/12/eye-watering-legal-cost-of-sunaks-failed-bid-to-withhold-whatsapp-messages-revealed/

Image of Elmo and former Prime Minister Tory idiot Boris Johnson
Image of Elmo (left) and former Prime Minister Tory idiot Boris Johnson (right)
Continue ReadingEye watering legal cost of Sunak’s failed bid to withhold WhatsApp messages revealed

Top Tory Think Tank’s North Sea Oil and Gas ‘Vested Interests’

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Original article republished from DeSmog.

‘Shocking’ findings show how board members at the Tufton Street think tank are tied to fossil fuel firms.

North Sea oil rigs in Cromarty Firth, Scotland. Credit: joiseyshowaa (CC BY-SA 2.0)
North Sea oil rigs in Cromarty Firth, Scotland. Credit: joiseyshowaa (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The influential Conservative-linked Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) has been pushing for further North Sea oil and gas drilling while several of its board members hold financial interests in the industry, a DeSmog investigation has found.

The news follows the government’s approval of the major Rosebank oilfield and the issuing of new North Sea licences, which the government intends to turn into a mandatory annual process, as announced in this week’s King’s Speech.

Five of the think tank’s board have financial interests in North Sea oil and gas, including its chair Lord Spencer, a major Conservative Party donor whose exploration company is bidding for licences in the current round.

The think tank, which is based at 57 Tufton Street in Westminster, meets regularly with ministers. It has called for new oil and gas projects to be accelerated, labelled the windfall tax on energy companies a “terrible idea”, and argued for a more generous fiscal environment for the UK’s fossil fuel producers.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is quoted on the organisation’s website as saying that “Lots of exciting ideas are being generated at the CPS… many of which are finding their way into government.”

Tessa Khan, executive director of climate group Uplift, said the findings were an example of how some think tanks have “long been little more than lobbying vehicles for private interests, including oil and gas”. The CPS denies that it is a lobbying group.

Khan added that organisations like the CPS “amplify the voices” of the oil and gas industry.

“This maybe goes some way to explaining why this government is set on subsidising new oil and gas fields when they represent such a bad deal for the public, in that they won’t lower bills, won’t increase energy security but will make the climate crisis worse,” she said.

Nature broadcaster Chris Packham, who is threatening to take the government to court over its recent watering down of climate measures, said: “Just weeks after we learn that not a single new offshore wind project will be going ahead this year due to the government’s intransigence – and as Rishi Sunak tears up vital climate policies – these findings are shocking.

“They provide further evidence that Number 10’s fossil fuel agenda is far from accidental. There are powerful vested interests at work and the Centre for Policy Studies seems to be at the heart of it. The government’s plan to hand out more than a hundred new North Sea drilling licences in the coming months is looking grubbier than ever.”

DeSmog previously revealed that the Conservative Party received £3.5 million from fossil fuel interests in 2022, including from the North Sea industry. This week, DeSmog also revealed that the government watered down its windfall tax on the excess profits of energy firms after a lobbying blitz by the oil and gas industry.

When asked about its board members’ business interests, a CPS spokesperson said that the think tank is “grateful for all our supporters, especially the support of our board members, but the investments of other boards on which they sit have no bearing on their relationship with the CPS”.

They claimed that DeSmog was “cherry-picking in order to manufacture an incorrect picture of the CPS’s position” and that it was “misleading and below journalistic standards.”

They added that “the Centre for Policy Studies has been one of the most prominent champions of free-market environmentalism, with a dedicated workstream on net zero” and that “Where our work is sponsored, this is made clear in the report acknowledgments, in press releases, and in event invitations.”

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), the regulator in charge of issuing drilling licences, said that oil and gas were “forecast to play an important role in the energy mix for decades to come”. A spokesperson said the NSTA was “pleased” with the number of applications received in the current oil and gas licensing round and that the process of assessing them was “progressing well”.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero declined to add any further comment.

At the end of September, the International Energy Agency, of which the UK is a member, released a report reiterating the need for a phaseout of fossil fuels if climate goals are to be met. 

Lord Deben, the recently retired chair of the UK’s Climate Change Committee, which advises the government, argued in August that the government should stop approving North Sea licences.

Deltic Energy

Lord Spencer, who has chaired the CPS since the start of 2020, is the largest shareholder of Deltic Energy, which holds stakes in 18 North Sea areas, known as blocks, according to NSTA data.

A former Conservative Party treasurer, Spencer was given a life peerage by Boris Johnson. Official data shows that he has donated more than £7.5 million to the Conservative Party, individual Tory politicians and officially affiliated groups since 2015. He also sits on the board of the party’s multi-million-pound endowment fund. DeSmog revealed earlier this year that many of its directors have significant fossil fuel interests.

Through his holding company, IPGL, Spencer owns a £17.5 million stake in Deltic, according to Refinitiv data – nearly a fifth of the firm. He has held a significant shareholding since at least 2018, and bought more shares in 2019 from its founder Algy Cluff, a pioneer of the original North Sea oil boom in the 1970s who himself later joined the CPS board.

Responding to an enquiry from DeSmog, Cluff said that although the value of the company “may have increased in the view of management”, the stock market is “unimpressed and very much aware of the risks associated with any oil investments nowadays”. He described the “small number” of options he holds in the company as “presently worthless”.

Cluff has nevertheless spoken of the North Sea’s “second coming”, claiming that there is “a lot more oil to be found” and a “huge amount of gas”.

Deltic has made significant discoveries in recent years, touting its “enviable reputation as proven hydrocarbon finders” on its website, and has seen its market value rise in tandem.

It won blocks in North Sea licensing rounds in both 2018 and 2020, with the former is said to represent an area the “size of Bedfordshire”.

In its latest annual report, for the 2022 calendar year, Deltic criticises the government’s windfall tax but praises its accompanying investment allowance, which provides North Sea companies with tax breaks to encourage investment.

A presentation it gave investors in March describes its strategy as “Identify. Explore. Monetise. Repeat.” It says the investment allowance “significantly enhances economics from investment in Deltic exploration”, touts controversial gas-derived “blue hydrogen” as environmentally friendly, and highlights “established export infrastructure” and “regular licensing rounds” as attractive features of the North Sea.

Deltic is chaired by Mark Lappin, a former technical director of fracking company Cuadrilla who has publicly called for more oil and gas production, criticising opposition to new drilling.

Lord Spencer’s Conservative donations, made either personally or through IPGL and ICAP, include £25,000 gifts to the 2022 leadership campaigns of Sunak, Liz Truss, and Penny Mordaunt.

Spencer made £20,000 donations to Johnson, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove and Sajid Javid in 2019, and has made smaller donations to numerous other leading figures within the party in recent years, including Kwasi Kwarteng, Dominic Raab, Theresa May, Brandon Lewis, and Andrew Griffith.

Spencer has also funded “Blue Collar Conservatism”, a large caucus of Conservative MPs working to “champion working people”, with donations totalling £25,000 in 2019 and 2020. The group has campaigned against fuel duty rises.

Spencer’s Other Fossil Fuel Interests

Lord Spencer has also publicly talked up the fossil fuel industry, telling LBC’s Nick Ferrari last September that the UK “sadly has opposed further investment in North Sea oil and gas”. During the interview, he praised then Prime Minister Liz Truss for speaking out against windfall taxes on the sector, calling them “not Tory policy” and “not pro-business”.

He also expressed support for fracking, praised Truss’s “strategy” and “ideology”, and called for investment in renewable energy, but omitted to mention his interests in oil and gas.

In addition to the North Sea, Spencer has various other fossil fuel interests. According to Refinitiv, he holds the second largest stake in Pantheon Resources, a UK company exploring for oil in Alaska that recently hailed a potentially enormous discovery.

His brokerage firm ICAP also includes an oil and gas trading arm. Until December last year, Spencer held shares in Petrofac, an oilfield services firm heavily involved in the North Sea, including the controversial Cambo project.

Spencer’s shareholdings are disclosed to the House of Lords – indicating either a stake worth more than £70,000 or significant control over the company. They include Cluff Energy Africa, described as an “early stage oil prospecting company, seeking licences in Africa (Angola and Sierra Leone)”.

Its founder, Algy Cluff, told DeSmog that they had “wound the company up” because they “found the premium being asked by governments for the right to explore not to be consonant with the rewards”.

Cluff was a director of the CPS between 1995 and 2006, coinciding with the executive directorship of the late Tessa Keswick. Cluff confirmed to DeSmog that Keswick helped him find investors for his North Sea consortium in the 1970s, as has been reported.

Tessa’s husband Henry Keswick, chairman emeritus of the conglomerate Jardine Matheson and a major Tory donor, used to own the influential conservative Spectator magazine and sold it to Cluff in the early 1980s. Cluff was its chairman until 2004, during which Charles Moore, Dominic Lawson, and Boris Johnson were editors.

The magazine was edited in the 1960s by the late Nigel Lawson, who would become Thatcher’s chancellor and in later life promote climate science denial through the Global Warming Policy Foundation, based at 55 Tufton Street.

Cluff’s remaining business interests include Cluff Mineral Resources, an Africa-focused gold and coal exploration company, which was temporarily based at 55 Tufton Street before moving next door to share an address with the CPS.

The Board

Another CPS board member, Lord Strathclyde, is a senior strategic adviser to Hibiscus Petroleum, a Malaysian oil and gas company that has amassed stakes in 11 North Sea blocks in recent years

Ithaca, the firm behind the high-profile Rosebank and Cambo projects, is partnering with Hibiscus on one of the blocks.

Hibiscus is also one of the firms to have been awarded stakes in the latest round of oil and gas licences.

Strathclyde, who was leader of the House of Lords under David Cameron, is an adviser to oil trading giant Trafigura.

Sir Douglas Flint, chair of Abrdn – formerly, Standard Life Aberdeen – also sits on the CPS board. Abrdn has been targeted by protesters for its investments in oil and gas, which climate researchers Urgewald estimate at £2.9 billion. According to the latest figures, they include oil majors like BP, Shell and Exxon, as well as North Sea-focused firms Serica Energy, Harbour Energy, and EnQuest.

The major asset manager was reportedly one of a group of financial institutions recently summoned by the Treasury to increase investment in the North Sea.

Lord Spencer’s entry in the register of interests indicates he also holds a stake worth more than £70,000 in Abrdn.

Other CPS board members include Jon Moulton, chair of FinnCap, a financial advisory firm whose activities include raising finance for North Sea oil and gas companies, and Roger Orf, a partner at Apollo Global Management, a US private equity firm with £349 million of investments in BP and Shell, both major North Sea players.

Two further CPS board members have wider interests in oil and gas: Ian Molson, deputy chair of Central European Petroleum, which is exploring for oil in Germany and Poland; and major Tory donor Lord Bamford, chair of construction giant JCB, a sector still heavily reliant on fossil fuels.

In April 2023, DeSmog revealed that CPS board members had donated more than £600,000 to the Conservatives since Rishi Sunak became prime minister. 

The CPS also leans on its board for funding. According to the group’s latest accounts – for the period up to September 2022 – its directors donated £1 million to the company during the year. Turnover was £650,000 during the year and ‘other operating income’ hit £1.5 million, meaning that the CPS board contributed nearly half (47%) of its income during the period.

North Sea Push

The Centre for Policy Studies has strongly supported new North Sea oil and gas drilling in recent years.

In a March 2022 economic bulletin, it recommended that the government “look at accelerating regulatory approval for upcoming oil and gas projects such as Rosebank [Phase 1], Clair South, Glengorm, Cambo and Bentley [Phase 2]”. 

The bulletin added that introducing a windfall tax on profits would be a “terrible idea” and “completely self-defeating”. It welcomed “reports” suggesting the government was planning to launch another licensing round for fossil fuel projects.

A month later, the CPS welcomed the government’s “energy security strategy”, calling the return of annual North Sea licensing rounds “overdue”. A 33rd licensing round was launched in October.

In September 2022, an economic bulletin from the think tank called for “improved tax incentives for firms operating in the North Sea”.

In February this year, one of the CPS’s senior researchers criticised the “punishment beatings inflicted on the North Sea oil and gas industry from George Osborne onwards” – despite the sector having enjoyed one of the most generous tax regimes in the world until the recent windfall tax.

Other articles published on CapX, a commentary website run by the CPS, have labelled the Labour Party’s policy of no new North Sea licences “more than a little nuts” and the SNP’s similar position a “dangerous gambit”.

Andy Mayer, chief operations officer at the BP-funded Institute of Economic Affairs, writes regularly for CapX. He has used the platform to describe opposition to the Rosebank project as “shrill hysteria”, Shell’s bumper profits this year as “brilliant stuff”, and North Sea companies being fined for gas flaring as a “dotty investment message to send”. Following the announcement of the latest North Sea licences, Mayer wrote a story for CapX headlined “Hurrah for new North Sea oil licences!”

CPS Influence

The CPS has significant political access, having conducted private, one-to-one meetings with ministers on 27 occasions since 2014 and attended many other larger ministerial meetings, according to data compiled by Transparency International from government disclosures.

A number of the think tank’s former employees are now working as government advisers and its homepage carries supportive quotes from former prime ministers Liz Truss and Boris Johnson. 

Rishi Sunak spoke at a CPS event at the Conservative Party conference in 2019 and wrote a report for the organisation in 2016 backing the roll-out of freeports, which have since been introduced.

The think tank, which was co-founded by Margaret Thatcher, hosted a “dedicated space” at this year’s party conference, with speakers including Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, and Grant Shapps.

The chair of Times Newspapers, which publishes The Times and Sunday Times, and the editor of The Spectator, both sit on the CPS board. All of the titles editorially support new North Sea oil and gas.

Richard Sharp, who was forced to resign as chairman of the BBC earlier this year over his connection to a secret £800,000 loan to Boris Johnson, sat on the CPS board for 19 years before joining the BBC in 2021.

The CPS, which does not disclose its funding, has offices on Tufton Street in Westminster, alongside several other “free market” pressure groups and think tanks, including the climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation.

Other board members include Rachel Wolf, a co-author alongside CPS Director Robert Colvile of the 2019 Conservative manifesto, which said the “North Sea oil and gas industry has a long future ahead” and supported a deal with the sector that allows for new drilling projects.

Original article republished from DeSmog.

Scientists protest at UK Parliament 5 September 2023.
Scientists protest at UK Parliament 5 September 2023.
Continue ReadingTop Tory Think Tank’s North Sea Oil and Gas ‘Vested Interests’