Meet The Anti-Regulation Groups Influencing Post-Brexit Trade Policy

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A handful of prominent individuals from anti-regulation thinktanks with close ties to International Trade Secretary Liz Truss have been appointed to top government advisory boards guiding the future of UK post-Brexit tradeย policy.

Individuals from four groups associated with the 55 Tufton Street network of free-market, pro-Brexit groups have been named as advisors since April 2019, DeSmog hasย found.

Many have a history of rejecting mainstream climate science and have worked with US-based libertarian groups to push for the removal of food safety, farming and animal welfare standards as the UK negotiates new post-Brexit tradeย deals.

The groups will be vying for influence on the trade bodies with organisations lobbying for standards to be maintained, such as the National Farmers Union and the coalition of major environmental groups, Greener UK.

The inclusion of the opaquely-funded groups will add to fears that the government is willing to negotiate deals that would roll back standards, in a move that campaigners have said could โ€œdecimateโ€ UK farming and lead to an influx of cheaper and potentially hazardous foods on supermarketย shelves.

Responding to DeSmogโ€™s findings, Transparency International, the UKโ€™s leading independent anti-corruption organisation, said: โ€œWhen it comes to environmental and climate issues, there cannot be any secrecy. Rolling back environmental regulations is not reflecting the views of the majority but a sign of the undue influence of aย few.โ€

Initiative for Freeย Trade

The appointment of Tony Abbott to the governmentโ€™s newly re-formed Board of Trade in September 2020 caused media and political outcry due to the former Australian Prime Ministerโ€™s record of climate scienceย denial.

Less remarked upon was Abbottโ€™s affiliation with the Initiative for Free Trade (IFT), a Eurosceptic thinktank previously based at 57 Tufton Street, next door to the UKโ€™s principal climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation, to which Abbott gave a lecture in 2017 entitled โ€œDaring toย Doubtโ€.

The IFT, which Abbott advises, has worked with major US libertarian groups to push for deregulation in a USUK trade deal, and is affiliated with a number of individuals and groups who have dismissed and downplayed the science of human-caused globalย warming.

Green Party MP, Caroline Lucas, warned that the appointment of advisors such as Abbott risked endangering the UKโ€™s reputation at home andย abroad.

โ€œWhen the Department of Trade appoints Tony Abbott, who believes climate change is a good thing, as a trade adviser, and then invites think tanks which lobby against environmental regulation to sit on its advisory board, it sends a very clear message about its intentions,โ€ Lucas told DeSmog. โ€œThe Trade Secretary insists the Government will stick by its manifesto promise not to compromise on environmental standards in tradeย deals.โ€

Lucas also criticised the recent cut in foreign aid budget from 0.7 to 0.5 percent of GDP, announced in this weekโ€™s spendingย review.

โ€œWe have seen one manifesto pledge dumped with the cut in overseas aid,โ€ she said. โ€œThe Government’s line-up of trade advisers suggests another one is being quietly abandoned too. This Government is rapidly getting a reputation for breaking its word, to other countries and its ownย citizens.โ€

In 2018, the IFT published a paper with the US libertarian thinktank, the Cato Institute, setting out a vision for an โ€œideal USUK tradeย deal.โ€

The blueprint, described by The Guardian as advocating a โ€œbonfireโ€ of regulations, called for the removal of environmental, food safety, and farming standards through the elimination of the โ€œprecautionary principleโ€ used to restrict products that are potentially hazardous to health and the environment including neonicotinoid pesticides and hormone-treatedย meat.

The Cato Institute, which was co-founded by oil tycoon Charles Koch, has released numerous publications rejecting mainstream climate science, principally through its โ€œCenter for the Study of Science,โ€ led by prominent climate science denier, Patrick Michaels, until its closure inย 2019.

Other Koch-funded US libertarian groups with a history of climate science denial also contributed to the report, including the American Enterprise Institute, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Manhattan Institute, Mercatus Center, and Heritage Foundation.

IFT President, Daniel Hannan, a former Conservative MEP who has frequently dismissed concerns about climate change, has also been appointed to the Board of Trade.

As well as being one of the lead authors on the IFT-Cato Institute report, Hannan recently attended an event held by the Heritage Foundation on โ€œUK Free Trade After Brexitโ€, where he called fears about the weakening of the UKโ€™s food safety standards โ€œbogusโ€ andย โ€œunscientificโ€.

The Heritage Foundation is a powerful US conservative organisation which claimed it was behind many of the policies adopted by President Donald Trump. Recommendations included withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, which president-elect Joe Biden has pledged to reverse. Senior representatives of the group have said climate change is an โ€œunproven scientific theoryโ€ and โ€œclearly not a crisis.โ€

International Trade Secretary Liz Truss also attended the Heritage Foundation event alongside leading Brexiteer trade advisor Shanker Singham. She previously met with the group, as well as the Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institute, Americans for Tax Reform and the American Legislative Exchange Council, during a taxpayer funded trip to Washington D.C. inย 2018.

In addition to its presence on the Board of Trade through Abbott and Hannan, the IFT was one of six groups invited to the launch of the Trade and Agriculture Commission which is tasked with ensuring the UK maintains high environmental standards but which has been criticised by its own members for inadequate representation of environmental and consumerย groups.

An IFT spokesperson said its mission was to make โ€œthe moral and intellectual case for removing protectionist barriers toย tradeโ€.ย 

In a statement, they told DeSmog: โ€œWe respectfully disagree with those who reject climate science. We believe strongly in tackling climate-change and take a special interest in how market forces can be involved in findingย solutions.โ€

They added that, while they considered environmental and consumer safety regulations โ€œextremely important and most often legitimate barriers to trade,โ€ they were keen to protect customers from โ€œmercantilist abuses ofย regulationโ€.

Institute of Economicย Affairs

Another group with a notable presence on the Department for International Tradeโ€™s (DIT) advisory bodies is the London-based free-market thinktank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

In July 2020, the DIT appointed Singham, an IEA Trade Fellow, and Sir Lockwood Smith, an IEA advisor, to the Trade and Agriculture Commission. Three months later, the DIT appointed the thinktankโ€™s Director-General, Mark Littlewood, as an expert to its Strategic Trade Advisory Group alongside two other representatives of groups in the 55 Tufton Street network.

The IEA is one of the UKโ€™s most influential pro-deregulation thinktanks and was accused by whistleblower Shahmir Sanni of being part of a coordinated campaign for a โ€œhardโ€ exit from the EU, along with eight other organisations based in and around Westminsterโ€™s 55 Tuftonย Street.

Singham was the lead author on an IEA report, published in September 2018, which called on the UK to drop โ€œrestrictiveโ€ regulations including environmental protections. The IEA was forced to withdraw the โ€œPlan A+โ€ report for breaching Charity Commission guidelines and reissued a revised version the following year. In the intervening period, the Charity Commission withdrew its warning and closed the compliance case, saying the charity had taken remedial action and the commissionโ€™s handling of the case was โ€œnot as good as it should have beenโ€. A spokesperson maintained, however, that the IEAโ€™s report โ€œcrossed the line and represented a breach of charityย law.โ€

In a comment provided to DeSmog after publication of this story, the IEA said it considered the commissionโ€™s temporary prohibition of the report a โ€œbreach of the Regulatorโ€™s Code and misapplication of charity lawโ€. It also emphasised it was an educational charity and dismissed claims it campaigned with other organisations for a โ€œhardโ€ Brexit as a โ€œbizarre conspiracy theoryโ€. It previously told the BBC that meetings that took place between the groups ahead of the referendum had not been used as a forum for political campaigning and had beenย misrepresented.

Singham was previously listed as an expert on a now-deleted webpage of the US-based free-market thinktank, the Heartland Institute, which has been at the forefront of denying mainstream climate science in the US forย decades.

Singham told DeSmog his report โ€œdoes not urge the UK to drop regulations,โ€ but instead seeks โ€œgood regulationโ€ in line with World Trade Organisation rules. He said he had had no association with the Heartland Institute and โ€œsevered the very minor interactionโ€ heโ€™d had with them after learning heโ€™d been listed on the groupโ€™sย website.

Singhamโ€™s affiliation with the IEA was initially included but quickly deleted from the governmentโ€™s press release announcing the Trade and Agriculture Commission, while Sir Lockwood Smithโ€™s affiliation was notย disclosed.

Smith, a former New Zealand Minister of Agriculture and International Trade, has downplayed public concerns about the rolling back of food safety and environmental standards in trade deals, saying public concerns over the import of products such as hormone-treated beef are not grounded inย fact.

Littlewood, the IEA Director-General, who was quietly appointed to the Strategic Trade Advisory Group in October, said he hoped to bring some โ€œsound free-market thinking to the governmentโ€™s approachโ€ onย trade.

The IEAโ€™s funding sources are opaque, with campaigners arguing a lack of transparency means the public does not know whose interests the organisationย represents.

The IEA discloses some, but not all, of its donors on its website, arguing that some donors wish to remain private. In 2018, an undercover investigation by Greenpeaceโ€™s investigative unit Unearthed revealed that it had received donations from British oil company BP every year sinceย 1967.

The IEA Director-General became embroiled in a โ€œcash-for-accessโ€ scandal as a result of the same investigation, where a reporter posing as a US agribusiness lobbyist was offered โ€œintimateโ€ access to UK ministers in return for funding an IEAย report.

In an undercover recording taken by Greenpeace Unearthed, Littlewood said donors could influence the โ€œsalienceโ€ of IEA reports and the thinktank could ensure there was โ€œsubstantial contentโ€ covering their area of interest. The IEA told DeSmog in a comment provided after publication of this story: โ€œYes, anyone can suggest topics for us to research. But funders are not permitted to influence the conclusions of our analysis. We have strict rules to protect our independence, including clear guidance to potential donors and a system of peer review. The interests Mr Littlewood represents are, therefore, the interests of the IEA, which seeks to put forward free marketย ideas.โ€

Following the Greenpeace story, the IEA faced investigations from the UKโ€™s lobbying registrar and the Charity Commission, with registrar Alison White finding the group did not meet the statutory definition for โ€œlobbyistsโ€ and the Charity Commission closing the case without taking action. The IEA denies anyย wrongdoing.

The lobbying register, which is overseen by the registrar, has been criticised by MPs and campaigners such as Transparency International UK for not being comprehensive enough to regulate all forms of lobbying. In 2015, the group estimated that the register covered just 4 percent of lobbyists operating in the UK.

A statement on the IEAโ€™s website responding to claims that it has promoted climate science denial says that it does not dispute the greenhouse effect, but that โ€œto frame the debate as โ€˜settledโ€™ and the certain outcome as a โ€˜climate crisisโ€™ or โ€˜climate emergencyโ€™ is a political view, notย science.โ€

Dr Alex Lockwood, an academic researching the links between climate change and food who is also a member of Writers Rebel, an Extinction Rebellion offshoot that recently organised a protest outside 55 Tufton Street, said: โ€œIt is totally unacceptable that bodies who do not disclose their funding sourcesโ€”who pay their cosy salariesโ€”get to advise government. How could the public know what interests are being championed at the heart of decision-makingย otherwise?โ€

The Adam Smith Institute and Centre for Policyย Studies

Joining Mark Littlewood on the Strategic Trade Advisory Group in two other appointments in October 2020 are the Adam Smith Instituteโ€™s Deputy Director, Matthew Kilcoyne, and the Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, Robertย Colvile.

The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) was named alongside the IEA, Centre for Policy Studies and other Tufton Street network groups as having coordinated strategies and media talking points to advocate a โ€œhardโ€ exit from the EU. It is based just around the corner from Tufton Street, on Westminsterโ€™s Great Smithย Street.

While the thinktank does not disclose its funding sources, a 2013 investigation by The Observer found that the ASI had, along with the IEA, received tens of thousands of pounds worth of donations from tobaccoย companies.

It has published numerous articles casting doubt on climate science, including from its Senior Fellow, Tim Worstall, as well as on alternatives to fossil fuels, describing solar power in Britain as an โ€œimpossibleย dream.โ€

Kilcoyne, who was appointed to the Strategic Trade Advisory Group in October, has said he questions the โ€œscientific basisโ€ of global warming and called on the government to remove barriers to freer trade โ€œwith or withoutย deals.โ€

Director Eamonn Butler, who was appointed to the DITโ€™s Free Ports Advisory Group in August 2019 has complained about โ€œglobal warmistsโ€ and said that growing the economy is preferable to investing in efforts to mitigate the effects of climate changeย now.

In a statement, the ASI said its record on climate change was โ€œwell established andย clearโ€.

A spokesperson told DeSmog: โ€œClimate change is happening, it is indeed something we must do about [sic] and further, it is humans causing the problem, and the answer is a carbon tax will target the social cost of carbonย emissions.โ€

They added that the institute did not have a position on Brexit, but โ€œallowed staff to take opposing positions and held events and produced papers examining both sides of theย debate.โ€

Joining Butler on the Advisory Group is the Centre for Policy Studiesโ€™ Head of Tax, Tomย Clougherty.

Clougherty, a former Executive Director of the ASI, previously held roles at the Cato Institute and the Reason Foundation, a libertarian organisation which has received over $2 million from Koch-related foundations since 1997, and which has put its name to claims that global warming could be of โ€œnet benefitโ€ toย humanity.

The Centre for Policy Studies, co-founded by former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has regularly published work by climate science denier and anti-renewables advocate Rupert Darwall, and, ahead of the UK‘s adoption of the Climate Change Act in 2008, published a report casting doubt on climateย science.

In recent years, however, it has taken a more supportive stance towards climate and environmental action, publishing essays calling on Conservatives to show leadership on climate change and arguing in favour of a carbon borderย tax.

A CPS spokesperson told DeSmog the group โ€œis intent on developing policies which help Britain to meet its legal commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, and has published multiple reports addressing these issues in recentย years.โ€

They added that allegations the CPS had worked with other groups to campaign for a hard-Brexit were โ€œludicrous, completely false and unfounded,โ€ adding that the CPS โ€œdid not take a position on Brexit, and did not campaign either for orย against.โ€

JCB

Among the business groups represented on DIT trade bodies is construction firm JCB, which has backed a number of groups based in and around 55 Tufton Street.

JCB Director Philip Bouverat is a member of the Strategic Trade Advisory Group as well as the governmentโ€™s dedicated sector-specific trade group for the automotive, aerospace and marineย sectors.

Owned by billionaire Lord Anthony Bamford, JCB and the Bamford family have donated almost ยฃ10 million to pro-Brexit and Conservative political causes sinceย 2001.

This includes donations worth ยฃ1.2 million to the official Vote Leave campaign, led by founder and former CEO of the TaxPayersโ€™ Alliance pressure group, Matthew Elliott.

Vote Leave was originally a resident of 55 Tufton Street alongside the Global Warming Policy Foundation and its members included several prominent figures associated with the group, including its founder, Lord Lawson, Trustee Graham Stringer and Adviser Matt Ridley.

JCB donated ยฃ63,000 to Grassroots Out, backed by Brexit Party and former UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, and co-founded by former Democratic Unionist Party MP Sammy Wilson, both of whom have dismissed mainstream climateย science.

Further JCB funding was sent to the Bruges Group, a group of Eurosceptic MPs which has hosted speakers including Shanker Singham and Dr John Hulsman, a former Senior Research Fellow from the Heritage Foundation.

Bamford is Director and Chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies and a member of the Midlands Industrial Council, a secretive group of Brexit-backing Tory party donors which targeted almost ยฃ230,000 to Tory candidates in mostly โ€œred wallโ€ seats during the 2019ย election.

The JCB Chair has previously donated to the TaxPayersโ€™ Alliance (TPA), a pressure group which, like many of the other groups in the Tufton Street network, does not disclose its funders and which has opposed government measures to combat climate change, including supporting the abolition of the Climate Change Levy, which incentivises businesses to improve energy efficiency and reduceย emissions.

Last year, JCB hired former Brexit secretary David Davis as an โ€œexternal adviser,โ€ paying the former Brexit Minister ยฃ60,000 for 20 hours of work. The same month, JCB paid then backbench MP Boris Johnson ยฃ10,000 three days before he gave a speech at its headquarters praising its businessย acumen.

A JCB spokesperson told DeSmog the company believes British businesses are up to the task of making Britain โ€œa global leader in free trade in the years aheadโ€, and that it had responded โ€œquicklyโ€ to the environmental challenges posed by climateย change.

DeSmog was unable to reach Tony Abbot and Sir Lockwood for comment in time forย publication.

This article was updated on 23/12/2020 to include comments provided to DeSmog by the Institute of Economic Affairs after publication. The article has also been updated to clarify that the IEA does disclose some of its funders on its website; that official complaints following Greenpeaceโ€™s 2018 investigation were not upheld; that the Charity Commission later withdrew its warning to the IEA over its Plan A+ report, while maintaining that the IEA had breached charity law; and that the IEA accepts the science behind the greenhouseย effect.

Photo credit:ย Garry Knight/Flickr/Publicย Domain.

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Rachel is an investigative researcher and reporter based in Brussels. Her work has been covered by outlets including The Guardian, Vice News, The Financial Times and The Hill.

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