The directors have financial interests in oil and gas giants such as BP as well as Shell.
Around two-thirds of the directors who run the Conservative Party’s multi-million-pound endowment fund, which was founded to support the long-term financing of the Conservative Party, have interests in fossil fuel firms or polluting industries.
The revelation was made by DeSmog, which highlighted how the directors have financial interests in oil and gas giants such as BP as well as Shell.
It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak approved 100 new oil and gas licences in the North Sea despite the planet facing a climate emergency, with the Tories also seizing on a backlash against the expansion of ULEZ, as they face condemnation from environmental groups.
The Conservative Party’s endowment fund, also known as the Conservative Party Foundation, also has two directors who currently or have previously held shares in the parent company of GB News, which has prominently platformed climate science denial since its launch in June 2021.
DeSmog goes on to report: “The Conservative Party Foundation board includes Lord Farmer, a former party treasurer and a metals trader who has donated more than £750,000 to the Conservatives and its candidates since 2018.
“Lord Farmer has extensive financial interests, including in a number of fossil fuel companies. The peer’s register of interests shows that he holds shares in oil and gas supermajors Shell and BP, as well as in Estover Energy, Chesapeake Energy, Tokamak, and the mining giant BHP. His shares in each of these companies exceed £50,000.
“Lord Farmer is joined on the foundation’s board by fellow former Conservative treasurer Lord Spencer, an investor and businessman whose net worth stood at an estimated £1.2 billion in 2021. Lord Spencer has donated more than £2.2 million to the Conservatives since 2018.”
Lord Spencer holds shares worth more than £50,000 in fossil fuel companies Cluff Energy Africa, Deltic Energy, the National Grid, Pantheon Resources, and Petrofac.
Close ally of David Cameron and former CEO of the Conservatives Party, Lord Feldman, is also listed as a director of the foundation. Lord Feldman’s LinkedIn profile lists a current role as vice chair of the global management consultancy Teneo which boasts of its oil and gas expertise on its website.
Given such links to fossil fuel firms at the top of the Conservative Party, can we really expect the Tories to care about tackling climate change?
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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