Penny Mordaunt received £10,000 donation from prominent climate denier’s firm
Peter Mandelson’s lobbying outfit, controversial Russian donors and billionaire financiers have all donated to British politicians in recent weeks according to new data
Penny Mordaunt received £10,000 from a company owned by a leading climate denier.
The leader of the House of Commons, who has been tipped as a future Conservative leader, declared the £10,000 donation from First Corporate Consultants Ltd in the most recent Register of Members’ Interests.
First Corporate Consultants is owned by the Bristol Port chairman Terence Mordaunt, who chaired the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) between 2019 and 2021.
The GWPF has been vocal in its opposition to climate crisis policies such as net zero and was sanctioned by the Charity Commission in 2014 for failing to adhere to rules on “balance and neutrality”.
Earlier this year, I revealed how the GWPF had received donations from US groups that fund climate denial.
In 2019, Terence Mordaunt told me that the Global Warming Policy Foundation was not involved in climate change denial but that “our knowledge of global warming is very imperfect and that if it is happening, it is happening far slower than most experts and climate models have predicted.”
In June of this year, First Corporate Consultants also donated £100,000 to Reform UK, formerly the Brexit party, which has called for a referendum on net zero.
Penny Mordaunt also declared £3,000 from Michael Hintze, who has been one of the key funders of the Global Warming Policy Foundation and has given millions to the Conservative party. Lord Hintze was also previously a trustee of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
Mordaunt also received £10,000 from First Corporate Consultants in March as well as £20,000 from the firm last year for her failed Tory leadership bid.
The latest update to the Register of Members Interests also suggests that Labour’s fundraising is cranking up ahead of the next general election.
Global Counsel, the political consultancy co-owned by Peter Mandelson, gave donations in kind worth £35,835 to shadow economic secretary Tulip Siddiq.
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy received £12,500 from Labour peer Waheed Alli and £70,000 from Gary Lubner “towards paying for additional staff” for his office. Lubner, the former boss of Autoglass, the car glass repair company, gave £2.2m in May and is expected to contribute more than that again before the next election.
Shadow justice secretary Shabana Mahmood registered donations in kind worth £68,000 from Labour Together, which the Electoral Commission fined £14,250 in 2021 for failing to declare more than £800,000 on donations.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves received £35,000 for staff costs from David Sainsbury, a Labour peer since 1997 and scion of the supermarket dynasty.
Meanwhile, former environment secretary Theresa Villiers received £4,000 from ex-Russian banker Luba Chernukhin, who is one of the biggest female donors in British history. Chernukhin - who has given more than £2.4m to the Tories - is married to a former deputy finance minister under Vladimir Putin and is a member of the controversial ‘advisory board’ of top Tory donors.
Chernukhin is not the only prominent Russian name in the latest update to the register of MPs' interests. As Russell Scott reported on his Torchlight Substack this morning, former Conservative chair Sir Brandon Lewis is being paid a whopping £250,000 for advising a company founded and “significantly” owned by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs.
While some MPs are feathering the nest, others seem to be building their election war chests. The billionaire Cayzer family of financiers donated £15,000 to four Tory MPs, including “Red Wall” MP Lee Anderson.
In all, Anderson, deputy Conservative party chairman, received £35,000 in donations for “local campaigning” including £10,000 from recent Tory donor Lebanese businessman Bassim Said Haidar (who is able to donate by having an Irish passport) and £20,000 from professor Christopher Wood who has given more than £1.2m to the Conservatives.
Elsewhere, Theresa May received £108,600 for five hours spent giving a speech at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
Jacob Rees Mogg received more than £29,000 for presenting a programme on GB News, while the same oft-Ofcom sanctioned broadcaster gave newly minted ‘minister for common sense’ Esther McVey almost £4,000 for presenting four episodes of a Saturday morning show which she co-hosts with her husband…. fellow Tory MP Philip Davies.
Who says talk is cheap….