A lot of people live under the illusion that we should rely on our MPs to sort out the fossil fuel use and move to green energy sources, in an attempt to avoid a climate and humanitarian crisis of unimaginable proportions, the very survival of humanity. However, a wee glance at the connections of some of our leading MPs and members of the House of Lords gives an insight to the interests and money sources of some of those in power, should make you think again, as I keep saying, they are laughing at us, for how long will we tolerate this danger to our survival?
Dozens of members of the House of Lords have investments worth millions of pounds and senior roles in oil and gas companies, prompting accusations of unethical conflicts of interest.They total 43 in all, including 33 who have shares worth a minimum of £50,000 in 19 oil and gas companies, and 10 who chair, direct or advise 15 fossil fuel firms.
Research shows 23 are Conservatives, three are Labour and 17 are without political affiliations. Two peers with shares in Shell – Conservative Baroness Noakes and crossbencher Lord Burns – sit on the House of Lords’ Industry and Regulators Committee, which heard evidence on net zero climate policies last month. The figures were uncovered by investigative news website The Ferret using the official registers of interests. A trawl of MPs’ interests shows donations and gifts from fossil fuel firms and climate contrarians
Oil companies, petrostates and climate contrarian thinktanks, businessmen and unions have given at least £5m to MPs over the past 10 years in the form of donations, expenses-paid trips, salaries and gifts. A trawl through parliament’s register of interests suggests Conservative politicians are far more likely to accept support from such sources. The Guardian is not suggesting MPs were paid for their votes, which is forbidden by law, but the scorecards highlight the legitimate lobbying activities of outside organisations who have most to lose from action to stop global heating.Nadhim Zahawi, the Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon, received more than £1m from fossil fuel companies, all of it declared and legitimate. Zahawi spent much of his parliamentary career working as chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone Petroleum, which paid him £52,325 in backpay in October 2015 and a monthly salary of £20,000 from October 2015, rising to almost £30,000 a month in August 2017, and some £330,000 in bonus payments. He stopped working for the company on becoming a government minister in 2018 (at which time he received a final payment of £116,000). He also declared shareholdings in Genel Energy, an Anglo-Turkish oil and gas exploration and production company, and a donation from Amjad Bseisu, the chief executive of the UK-based oil company EnQuest. Until August 2015 the former oil exploration company Afren and the former Canadian oil company Talisman, which was a major producer from the Alberta tar sands, were clients of Zahawi & Zahawi, a business advisory service. The Guardian contacted Zahawi’s office for comment, but received no reply.
Alan Duncan, a former Foreign Office minister, also has close ties to the petroleum industry. After leaving a post in the international development ministry, Duncan, while still an MP, registered as a non-executive chairman of Fujairah Refining in the United Arab Emirates, for which he received £8,000 a month for a job involving three weekend meetings a year. Along with a severance package, payments totalled £90,000. The majority owner of that refinery is the energy company Vitol, owned by the UK businessman Ian Taylor.
Duncan formerly headed the Conservative Middle East Council, which arranges trips for Tory MPs with funding from businessmen with ties to Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region. He has made multiple trips to Oman and Saudi Arabia as a guest of the host government or its supporters, and has received gifts of a watch or cufflinks on a number of occasions from the sultanate of Oman.
A former employee of Royal Dutch Shell, prior to 2009 Duncan declared incomes from Arawak Energy (an undisclosed amount), a company involved in oil exploration and production, and Harcourt Consultants, a firm he established to advise clients on the oil and gas industry.
Alistair Burt, whose 2015 register includes £5,000 income for work as a non-executive director of the oil exploration company President Energy; John Hayes, Conservative MP for South Holland and The Deepings, who has declared an expected £50,000-a-year salary from an oil firm, BB Energy; and Conor Burns, a trade minister, who has declared £10,000 per quarter since 2011 for 10 hours’ work for Trant Engineering, an oil and gas engineering firm, totalling more than £300,000.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the leader of the House of Commons, has ignored the Conservative whip on more than 120 occasions, mostly on issues related to Europe, but he has generally followed the party line in voting 10 times against measures that would bring emissions down. He has cast doubt on the reliability of scientific forecasts and blamed “alarmism” for high energy prices.
There are few direct donations from fossil fuel firms. Michael Gove, the current chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and former environment minister, received £10,000 from Tullow Oil in 2010.Do you think they want to cut out their very lucrative pocket money they grab over and above their MPs salary, which we pay? I will repeat, they are laughing at us.
