However, Cooper backtracked after becoming home secretary, opting to appeal against the quashing of the very legislation she once condemned. The Court of Appeal found against the government.
The government’s continuation of Conservative rhetoric and frustration at judicial independence on asylum cases was also clear in recent calls to exploit “legal loopholes,” drawing criticism even from the hardline Lady Justice Carr.
Another unprincipled U-turn has been ordained by foreign secretary David Lammy. When he was a backbench MP in 2018, he described Donald Trump as a “tyrant” and “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath.”
Consultancy
He now discounts his own denunciation as old news. He now says he looks forward to finding “common ground” with Trump. He now wants us to believe that the US president is suddenly “someone that we can build a relationship with in our national interest.”
This common ground inevitably includes championing the interests of oil at home and overseas. He has invited Shell and BAE Systems into Whitehall diplomatic roles, describing the relationship as “a strong shared endeavour.”
Peter Mandelson has performed a similar act of obeisance, having called Trump “reckless and dangerous to the world” in 2019 and then after his elevation to ambassador to the court of Trump announcing a “fresh respect for the US president.”
This volte face likely relates to his time leading the consultancy Global Counsel, which has lobbied the new administration on behalf of Shell and Anglo American.
It’s efforts have also benefited JP Morgan (which has ploughed $430bn into fossil fuel projects since 2015), Standard Chartered (similarly $71bn), and the Palantir organisation founded and chaired by conservative libertarian Peter Thiel who donated to Donald Trump’s political campaign.
Vehicle
Before the election, Labour pledged not to grant new oil exploration licences but said existing Conservative-approved projects would remain. However, in 2023, courts ruled the Rosebank and Jackdaw licences unlawful due to regulators’ failure to assess the full climate impact, and both were rescinded.
Following the ruling the companies behind these projects, including Equinor (for Rosebank) and CNOOC (for Jackdaw), were invited to reapply for the licences, but with a more thorough evaluation of downstream emissions from the burning of the extracted oil and gas.
Dishearteningly, Keir Starmer has signalled that, should the companies reapply and be granted new licences, he would not block them, cynically sidestepping his pledge not to approve new exploration with the excuse that the original licences had been submitted before the election.
Starmer had pledged to deliver a green prosperity plan before the Labour Party conference delegates in 2022. “It’s time to write a new chapter of Labour Party history about how we built a fairer, greener, more dynamic Britain by tackling the climate emergency head on and using it to create the jobs, the industries, the opportunities of the future,” he said.
“And what will it mean for working people? Cheaper bills and higher living standards. Labour’s Green Prosperity Plan is the vehicle through which we will turn Britain’s economy around.”
Endorsed
This pledge was underpinned by the Cedefop report, ‘Skills in transition – The way to 2035’, which concluded that demand is likely to increase upskilling in sectors such as construction, transportation, waste management, electricity, architecture and engineering as these sectors constitute the starting points for a successful green transition and a bedrock for future prosperity.
Even the bad boys of Wall Street, Ernst & Young, has admitted: “Green jobs, which contribute to environmental protection and climate action, are projected to drive economic growth and create new opportunities, potentially boosting GDP while also fostering a sustainable future.”
But given the government’s multi-facetted Faustian pact with the oily agents of Thanatos, it was inevitable that the government would drop its £28 billion commitment to a green transition. Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, accepted a £10,000 donation from Lord Donoughue, who also bankrolls the climate denying Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).
The ‘green growth agenda’ seems now to have been no more than a smokescreen for business as usual. GDP growth is certainly not the solution, but even by their own standards, the government has failed to read the runes.
Astonishingly, two months after the election last year, Policy Exchange was welcomed as hosts of a reception at the Labour Party conference and Lisa Nandy endorsed their presence by taking part in a subsequent seminar.
Hostility
Sam Simons of Stop Polluting Politics has written of the continuing influence of the science denialist think tanks: “It is pressure groups like Policy Exchange and its chums on Tufton Street that should be the target of government scrutiny – not peaceful protestors.
“Labour must cut its ties with Policy Exchange and show they truly work for the people, not polluters.”
While its Machiavellian maneuvers on behalf of big oil are well-documented, Policy Exchange’s ties to the shadowy Gatestone Institute – a network of disinformation specialists who spread hate and fear of Muslims – reveal even darker intentions.
Douglas Murray, who once served on Gatestone’s board, openly endorsed extreme nationalism at last year’s National Conservatism conference. He said: “I see no reason why every other country in the world should be prevented from feeling pride in itself because the Germans mucked up twice in a century.”
Murray is also associate director of the Henry Jackson Society (HJS). Nafeez Ahmed, a journalist at Byline Times, describes them as “a neocon trojan horse for […] state-expansionism, state-militarisation, interventionism, rampant market deregulation and privatisation in the interests of Western investors, coupled with anti-Muslim hostility and white supremacism.”
Zombies
Nevertheless, Robin Simcox, a research fellow at HJS was appointed by the last government as the commissioner for countering extremism, fueling fear of environmental activism when he disingenuously warned that environmental groups would “become increasingly militant and that acts of violence will be the logical end”. He is still in post.
In January 2021, the Conservative government appointed William Shawcross – an HJS board member – to lead the review of its anti-radicalisation programme, Prevent. Amnesty and 16 other groups boycotted it, citing concerns over his perceived anti-Muslim bias and downplaying of far-right threats.
It was also revealed that when Shawcross was Charity Commission chairman, he had, through the auspices of Professor Gwythian Prins of the GWPF, approached Christopher Snowdon of the tobacco and oil-funded Institute of Economic Affairs to discuss how such industries might influence public debate without opposition from charities. Shawcross also remains in post at Prevent.
Also endorsed by the Labour party by its presence at the 2023 conference was Peter Thiel’s ubiquitous Spy-tech firm Palantir, which created software to support drone strikes and immigration raids. Palantir has since secured a £330m contract to build a central database holding all NHS data.
Peter Thiel aligns himself with ‘Dark Enlightenment’ ideologue Curtis Yarvin, endorsing the idea that democracy is incompatible with freedom and likening immigrants to zombies.
Misleading
Yarvin has written: “Our goal, in short, is a humane alternative to genocide. That is: the ideal solution achieves the same result as mass murder (the removal of undesirable elements from society), but without any of the moral stigma.”
Thiel also openly supports dismantling social welfare programs that many working Americans depend on, such as Social Security, and opposes nearly all limitations on corporate rights to profit from workers’ labour.
Cori Crider, founder of Foxglove, a team of lawyers and tech experts dedicated to fighting for ‘tech justice’ warns: “A firm like [Palantir] has no place being the ‘operating system for the NHS’ – period”. She adds that the company “makes no secret of its desire to keep profiting from war and surveillance”.
Democracy For Sale notes that Labour and Wes Streeting have accepted £120,000 from John Armitage, a Policy Exchange trustee with private health ties. Streeting has also spoken as a guest of Policy Exchange twice in the past year.
Also welcomed at the 2023 Labour conference was energy company SSE, which, despite accusations of misleading the public over ‘green investments’ sponsored a talk entitled ‘Delivering net zero’, and Cadent Gas which sponsored another greenwashing event: ‘How can the energy sector support customers on the journey to net zero?’
Greased
Other previous sponsors, who no doubt expect a return on their investments, include National Gas, which provides infrastructure on behalf of British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, nPower and ScottishPower, and Offshore Energies UK (formerly Oil and Gas UK) which has successfully, lobbied for a rollout of carbon capture infrastructure as a distraction from their core activity: the exploration of offshore gas. In 2023, these fringe events were hosted by the New Statesman.
At the time Clive Lewis MP expressed an exasperation undoubtedly felt by those of us who considered the New Statesman a trusted publication of the liberal left.
“Why are they accepting sponsorship and funding from some of these ethically and morally questionable corporations?” he told openDemocracy.
“People want change under a Labour government” he continued, adding that hosting these companies indicates “the same palms are going to be greased.”
He concluded: “I think it’s entirely possible to be on the side of entrepreneurs…without necessarily having to get into bed with big oil companies, big corporations, or the likes of Palantir – and the Labour Party should be really clear about that.”
They have failed to be.
Corrupted
Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace UK, told openDemocracy: “The fossil fuel lobby is no stranger to cosying up with policymakers – they’ve had a lot of success and made a lot of cash from doing so in the past.
“But Labour must not make the same costly mistakes as the Conservatives by giving these self-serving climate-wreckers the opportunity to launder their political reputation.
“The next government must have bold policies and a strong commitment to tackling the climate crisis, not another one that ends up in the back pocket of polluters and dodgy operators.”
Also welcomed into Labour’s inner circle, and in attendance at last year’s conference where his firm hosted a drinks reception, was Iain Anderson, a financial lobbyist who supported Liz Truss and represented climate offenders such as BlackRock and Santander.
As reported by openDemocracy one Labour MP said: “The British state has been corrupted by big money. It would appear that whoever is in Downing Street, bankers and business leaders call the shots.
Suspend
“The Tories lost the trust of the British public in no small part due to their dodgy dealings. If the Labour government isn’t careful it will go the same way. […] It is a clear conflict of interest for a lobbyist to work in the government.”
Just after the election, the Labour party accepted a £4m donation from Quadrature Capital, which has stakes worth more than £135m in fossil fuel companies.
“Quadrature’s largest corporate shareholding positions linked to Israel’s war in Gaza is with Palantir Holdings, […] with more than $72m of shares held in June,” reported open Democracy.
The omnipresent Palantir has long-standing contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense, including support for fighter programs like the F-35.
While David Lammy suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel, he refused to suspend licences related to F-35s. Once again, Palantir had its way.
Scandal
Since the UK election, it has been clear that the neocons have been buoyed by the election of a fellow traveller in the USA, and with new wind in their sails they have ramped up their incursions into the political mainstream.
Both major parties are now pandering to the Reform party’s base and, in doing so, Labour is sacrificing any remnants of socialist principle.
The now ubiquitous use by Labour of phrases like ‘tax burden’, ‘taking back control of our borders’ and eco ‘zealots’, straight from the Reform lexicon, is evidence of this drift.
Graham Stringer, a Labour MP and also a GWPF trustee, once voted against accepting human-driven climate change and in 2017 told The Independent: “I am sceptical about everything – that is what scientists are. [There] has been an enormous amount of shoddy work masquerading as science with regards to climate change.”
Before the election, Carys Boughton of the Fossil Free Parliament campaign group said: “It’s a scandal that Labour is allowing Graham Stringer to stand again.
Purge
“To keep a forthright, prominent climate denier in the fold is to suggest that the party doesn’t understand the urgency of the crisis we are facing. We need Labour to actively stand against the forces that are compromising good climate policy, be they external or within their own ranks.”
Yet Stringer retains the Labour whip.
Christopher Chope MP, another GWPF supporter, took up a place on the Energy and Net Zero All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) to influence policy on a green transition.
Although he hasn’t declared any formal connection to climate denial groups, cocking a brazen snook at the committee, he recently attended the launch of Heartland UK/Europe, a branch of the foremost US climate science denial hub funded by Koch Industries.
Bob Ward, the director of communications at the LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: “Heartland no doubt feels emboldened by the prospect of a new Trump administration that is promising to carry out an ideological purge of anything related to climate action.”
Emboldened
Indeed, the Commons standards committee has, in the past, expressed fears that “hostile foreign actors [could seek to gain] improper access and influence” through the APPGs, and that companies and foreign powers could use APPGs to buy political influence.
It is now clear that far from being a new broom, the new administration has continued the Conservative’s symbiotic relationship with lobbyists working on behalf of those whose interests do not include our wellbeing as a nation: the oil industry proxies of Tufton Street, as well as a broader network of far-right ideologues aligned with the resurgent Trump regime.
The home office maintains that: “The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure.”
The failure of Starmer’s executive to confront these forces, newly emboldened and operating with a sense of impunity, has opened the door to a dark age of authoritarianism and climate precipitated societal collapse.
Revolution
This essay highlights climate denial and spin—whether as an aspect of government corruption, or how it’s reported.
Today’s media ecosystem – across social, corporate, and state platforms – has been captured by a handful of powerful actors: billionaire owners, political fixers, and advertisers. They use this control to advance narrow, often toxic agendas at the expense of truth and public interest.
Frustration among those committed to honest reporting has reached boiling point in the UK. The media’s capture by vested interests and a broken regulatory landscape are barriers we must overcome in order to tell and hear objective truth – whether about climate breakdown or the cynically fomented culture wars dominating public discourse on a raft of issues of our times.
If democracy is to survive, this must be challenged. Media Revolution, launched in October 2024, is a collaborative, self-organised working group created to do exactly that. If you would like to know more, find us at Media Revolution.
This Author
Tom Hardy FRSA has over 40 years of experience in education, serving as literary editor for the International Journal of Art and Design Education, as an occasional columnist for the Times Educational Supplement, and author/editor of several academic works on educational practice. He has worked as an education consultant for the Prince’s Teaching Institute and subject lead for the Qualifications and Curriculum Development Agency reporting to the Department for Education. He now works with Media Revolution.