Tory Climate Policies are ‘Socialist’ Says New Head of Policy at Influential Westminster Think Tank

Matthew Lesh will be joining the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free market think tank which played a significant role in advocating for a “hard” Brexit and has criticised the government’s approach to climate action as expensive and ineffective.
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The Institute of Economic Affairs has its headquarters on Lord North Street, Westminster. Credit: Des Blenkinsopp (CC BY-SA 2.0)

An influential think tank with close ties to MPs has hired a head of policy who called the governmentโ€™s climate policies โ€œsocialistโ€ and likened proposed green legislation to a โ€œSoviet Five Year Planโ€. 

Matthew Lesh, who was head of research at the Adam Smith Institute, this week confirmed he would be taking up a new role at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free market think tank with a history of criticising green government policies. 

The appointment comes after IEA director general Mark Littlewood co-hosted an โ€œin-depth conversationโ€ with chancellor Rishi Sunak at the Conservative Party conference last week, during which Littlewood quizzed Sunak on the governmentโ€™s climate policies. It was one of at least ten IEA events at the party conference. 

In a statement posted by the IEA on Twitter, Lesh said he was โ€œextremely excitedโ€ to be joining the think tank, adding: โ€œThe IEA kept the flame of liberty and classical economics alive against the stagnant post-war consensus.”

โ€˜Five Year Planโ€™

The IEA has a record of opposing the governmentโ€™s approach to climate change, which IEA director Mark Littlewood has described as too expensive and ineffective. Andy Mayer, IEA chief operating officer, on Saturday argued that the current energy crisis proves that the 2019 UK moratorium on fracking was an โ€œextremely bad decisionโ€.

A 2018 Greenpeace investigation revealed that the IEA had taken funding from British oil company BP since 1967. 

IEA director Mark Littlewood recently told Politico the IEA is planning โ€œboot campsโ€ with MPs โ€œto present to them the way we see problems in the world today.โ€ He said there has โ€œnever been greater urgency to re-inculcate free-market thinking inside the Conservative Party”.

Weeks before his appointment, Lesh wrote a column for the Telegraph criticising โ€œtop-downโ€ government policies to tackle climate change, including bans on new petrol and diesel cars from 2030 and phasing out gas boilers, which he called โ€œtools from the old socialist handbookโ€. 

He also wrote that the Environment Bill currently going through parliament has โ€œa delightful Soviet Five Year Plan feel to itโ€. 

Lesh has argued that the private sector can solve the climate crisis, writing in 2019 that โ€œclimate change is a serious problemโ€ but that โ€œbroadly speaking, the market system is perfectly capable of responding to these issuesโ€.  

The same year, Lesh called environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion a โ€œdoomsday cult, devoid of any association with realityโ€. In his Telegraph column last month he said that while climate activists โ€œare finally losing the war on the streets, their ideas have never been more influential in the halls of powerโ€. 

Political Affiliations

The IEA played a significant role in advocating for a โ€œhardโ€ Brexit and was named by whistleblower Shahmir Sanni as one of nine organisations based in and around Westminsterโ€™s 55 Tufton Street that coordinated a campaign for a โ€œhardโ€ exit from the EU. DeSmog has previously mapped the extensive crossover between some prominent campaigners for Brexit and opposition to action on climate change. 

Liz Truss, who recently became foreign secretary, met with the IEA twice last year when she was international trade secretary, and later tried to remove the meetings from the public record. 

In 2019 the IEA claimed 14 members of Boris Johnsonโ€™s then-cabinet were involved in the groupโ€™s activities. 

The IEA also hosted a number of events featuring Tory MPs at this yearโ€™s Conservative Party conference. In one, Steve Baker, a leading opponent of the governmentโ€™s net zero policies and a trustee of the climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation, claimed that much climate science is โ€œcontestableโ€ and โ€œsometimes propagandisedโ€.

Molly Scott Cato, Green Party spokesperson on economy and finance, said: โ€œWhile the IEA sound like a neutral, academic research institute they are in fact a shadowy organisation exercising a great deal of power and usually against the public interest. 

โ€œWe need to see the end of spokespeople from these secretly funded organisations offered access to top politicians and media platforms, to act as mouthpieces for the wealthy and for those who would hold back climate action.โ€

She added: โ€œIt’s clear that an urgent and just energy transition will require widespread government intervention. Attempts to prevent this by market ideologues will guarantee greater climate chaos and a dystopian future for us all.โ€

The IEA and Matthew Lesh have been contacted for comment, as has the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Update: The IEA and Matthew Lesh have been asked to provide written comment on the content of this story. 

Adam Barnett - new white crop
Adam Barnett is DeSmog's UK News Reporter. He is a former Staff Writer at Left Foot Forward and BBC Local Democracy Reporter.

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