Tory MP hires staff linked to climate denial group

LONDON — A U.K. Conservative who chairs a group of MPs pushing back against Boris Johnson’s net zero agenda has recruited two members of staff with links to the country’s most high-profile climate science denial group.

Craig Mackinlay leads the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, a caucus of around 20 Tory backbenchers vocally protesting green policies such as the phaseout of gas boilers and electric vehicles.

Members of the group have always maintained their focus is on the cost to households rather than questioning the science behind climate change.

However, Mackinlay has recently hired Harry Wilkinson, head of policy at Net Zero Watch, in addition to Ruth Lea, a former trustee of the group, to work in his parliamentary office. Researchers at campaign website Desmog alerted POLITICO to the moves. 

Net Zero Watch is the latest incarnation of the Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF), well-known to green campaigners as a megaphone for climate change denial.​

The organization has focused its efforts over the past 12 years on casting doubt on the work of the world’s top scientists.

Championed by prominent Conservative rebel MP Steve Baker and former Chancellor Nigel Lawson, the Net Zero Watch campaign describes itself as setting out to “highlight the serious economic and societal implications of expensive and poorly considered climate and energy policies.”

Mackinlay previously acknowledged that Net Zero Watch research is being used by his group for its campaigns, but those links appear to be growing closer.

Wilkinson is expected to receive two salaries: one from the taxpayer as a parliamentary aide and one from Net Zero Watch, while Lea is unpaid.

Wilkinson has previously tweeted that “the ‘climate crisis’ is a religious belief, nothing to do with science.” 

Lea, who was a trustee for Net Zero Watch between 2019 and 2021, wrote a pamphlet for them in which she claimed the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s “forecasting record has been poor, overestimating the degree of global warming.” In fact, the IPCC’s most recent report showed the observed warming was nearly identical to modelled simulations.

Mackinlay confirmed to POLITICO that Lea had secured a parliamentary pass through association with his office since 2016, saying: “She has never been paid and has assisted me primarily across Brexit, Treasury and economic issues throughout as she continues to do.”

He added her work with Net Zero Watch “was wholly unconnected to her original appointment with me and is not related to her continuation as a passholder now. She is largely retired these days and she comes to parliament infrequently.”

He said Wilkinson’s continuing employment with Net Zero Watch “is fully disclosed according to parliamentary rules applying to MPs’ employees and his depth of knowledge acquired there is invaluable to my interest and work on net zero issues.”

Lea said she was not a climate change denier but supports the aims of Net Zero Watch, noting: “The U.K. accounts for 1 percent of man-made carbon emissions and our de facto net zero policies are therefore pretty futile and very expensive.”