Badenoch ‘in pay of climate deniers’

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has been accused of being “in the pay of the climate deniers” over her comments about net zero by 2050 being “impossible”.

Mrs Badenoch said in a speech last month that net zero cannot be achieved by 2050 “without a serious drop in our living standards or by bankrupting us”, ditching the target passed by her own party.

Jenny Jones, formally titled Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb, a Green party peer, claimed in Parliament on Thursday of last week that this shift in policy was down to climate sceptic lobby groups and their donations.

Lobbied

She said: “If you want to know where all the objections to net zero have come from, then you have to follow the money. The Conservative Party leader has abandoned net zero by 2050 because she is in the pay of the climate deniers in Tufton Street.

“She made the announcement immediately after receiving donations from the Global Warming Policy Foundation, and linked pressure group Net Zero Watch.

“At least four members of Kemi Badenoch’s shadow cabinet, including her shadow net zero secretary Claire Coutinho, have also received donations from funders of the group.”

Tufton Street is known for hosting a network of libertarian lobby groups and think tanks that focus on issues like Brexit and climate change policies.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation, founded by former Conservative chancellor Nigel Lawson, has lobbied against climate change policies such as net zero.

Services

The Charity Commission said in July last year that Net Zero Watch is a wholly owned trading subsidiary of the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

According to her register of interests, Mrs Badenoch received “gifts, benefits and hospitality” worth an estimated £14,530.38 in February this year from Net Zero Watch chair Neil Record.

This came in the form of provision of workspace, accommodation and associated hospitality for a series of work meetings in Gloucestershire over six days with colleagues, and which the Tory leader’s family also attended.

Mrs Badenoch also received a £10,000 donation from Mr Record in July last year in support of her leadership campaign and two other donations in November.

These included the commissioning of research services to the estimated value of £5,175 and the part use of private property for meetings and storage of campaign material to an estimated value of £1,571.

Achievability

However, a spokesperson for Ms Badenoch made it clear that there has been no donation from the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

They said: “Kemi Badenoch has said that getting to Net Zero by 2050 is impossible without bankrupting the country and working families.

“She has come to that conclusion by studying the evidence. It says everything about the fanatical green lobby that rather than face up to these facts, they resort to false smears.