A major right-wing political funder has dramatically increased his fossil fuel investments this year, DeSmog can reveal.

Jeremy Hosking, who owns the hedge fund Hosking Partners, donated £1.7 million to Reform UK between 2019 and 2024. The party, led by Nigel Farage, campaigns to scrap the UK’s flagship 2050 net zero emissions target, remove environmental protections, and turbocharge new fossil fuel extraction.

Hosking also owns The Critic magazine, which frequently attacks climate policies and supports new North Sea oil and gas exploration. Its current edition carries a cover story titled “The Green Myth: Fossil Fuels are Britain’s Real Energy Source”.

DeSmog’s analysis of the latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings from Hosking Partners reveals that it held $440.8 million (around £326.5 million) worth of stock in oil, gas, and coal companies as of the end of March 2026.

The filing, which covers the first quarter of the year, shows an increase of more than $154 million (£114 million) since the previous entry – up by 53.8 percent.

“This exposé highlights the urgent need for an honest debate about the fossil fuel industry’s toxic influence over our media,” said Richard Wilson of the campaign group Stop Funding Heat.

“Thanks to DeSmog, we already knew that GB News is co-owned by a fossil-fuelled billionaire, and that the Daily Mail’s parent company makes millions running oil and gas conferences. Now we learn that yet another outlet which regularly attacks climate action is similarly compromised.”

He added: “Democracy depends on having a media that tells the truth without fear or favour, not one beholden to special interests.”

The U.S.-Israeli war in Iran – which began in late February – has disrupted global supply chains for consumer goods, and major commodities including fossil fuels.

It has also delivered windfall profits to the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, with the top 100 making $23 billion (almost £17 billion) in March alone. The oil major BP today announced £2.4 billion in profits for the first quarter of this year – up 130 percent from the same period last year.

Although it’s unknown if Hosking Partners increased its fossil fuel investments in response to the Iran war, the firm has stood to benefit from its expanded oil and gas holdings.

The hedge fund has $369.7 million (around £273.7 million) invested in oil and gas. This includes $34.7 million (£25.6 million) in ConocoPhillips, $8.4 million (£6.2 million) in ExxonMobil, and $7.9 million (£5.8 million) in Chevron.

Shares in ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil soared by 41 percent in the first quarter of this year, while Chevron’s share price rose by 35.7 percent.

Hosking’s firm also has $71 million (around £52.6 million) invested in coal companies: $61 million (£45 million) in Warrior Met Coal, $7 million (£5 million) in Core Natural Resources, and $2.7 million (£1.9 million) in Peabody Energy.

Hosking did not respond to our request for comment but previously told DeSmog: “I do not have millions in fossil fuels; it is the clients of Hosking Partners who are the beneficiaries of these investments.”

Farage Funding

Hosking has used his wealth to support right-wing political projects – including parties that campaign for new fossil fuel extraction and against clean energy development.

He donated more than £1.7 million to Reform over a four-year period, including £125,000 before the 2024 general election.

Reform has led the charge against the UK’s net zero targets, calling for new fossil fuel extraction, including North Sea exploration and the reopening of coal power plants. It also campaigns for state renewable energy investment to be scrapped, and has used the Iran war to double-down on its pro-oil policies, pledging to extract “every last drop” of oil and gas out of the North Sea.

The party – leading in UK-wide polls and expected to gain ground in this year’s May elections across Britain – has also promoted climate science denial. Farage has claimed it’s “absolutely nuts” for CO2 to be considered a pollutant, despite admitting: “I can’t tell you whether CO2 is leading to warming or not”.

In reality, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has said it is “unequivocal” that human influence has caused “unprecedented” global warming.

And while Reform has claimed that the UK’s climate policies are “economic suicide”, a report by the New Economics Foundation concluded that the party’s anti-renewables agenda could cost 60,000 jobs and wipe £92 billion off the economy.

In March, the independent Climate Change Committee said the entire cost of cutting emissions to net zero by 2050 would be less than a single fossil fuel price shock – two of which have been experienced by the UK in the past five years.

Hosking has also donated £4.3 million since 2019 to the Reclaim Party, led by radical right-wing commentator and former actor Laurence Fox. The party, which has a minimal electoral presence, claims “there is no climate emergency”, wants to ditch net zero, and frack for shale gas.

Pro-Oil Coverage

Hosking’s magazine The Critic routinely dismisses the need to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Its current cover story is written by contributing editor Chris Bayliss, who argues that renewable energy is unreliable and expensive. In a follow-up piece online, he blames “elite” support for net zero on “climate hysteria”.

Bayliss is a former civil servant who works in the energy sector in Iraq. He’s the Iraq Country Lead for IM Power, which runs liquefied natural gas (LNG), oil and coal power plants, offers “oil and gas refining, storage and pipeline solutions”, and works to “maximise value from hydrocarbon resources”. IM Power also provides renewable energy from solar power, an energy source Bayliss criticises in his articles.

In The Critic, Bayliss cites debunked policy papers authored by individuals and groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry.

His position is endorsed by the magazine. The current edition includes an editorial titled “On a Wind and a Prayer” arguing that “beggaring ourselves will not cool the rest of the planet’s weather”.

The Critic has also run articles by senior figures at the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s foremost climate science denial group, which has claimed that carbon dioxide emissions are “a benefit to the planet”.

In February, The Critic ran a piece titled “We Can’t Just Stop Oil: Oil and Gas are inevitable elements of our future” by Kathryn Porter, an oil and gas industry consultant who has authored reports for the GWPF.

In November, the magazine published an article by GWPF head of policy Harry Wilkinson calling for the United Nations COP climate negotiations to “be realistic” and drop its push for “centrally planned decarbonisation”. Wilkinson added that “COP delegates have long demonised fossil fuels as a problem to be expunged, instead of an engine of economic development”.

Wilkinson has long dismissed the threat from climate change, writing in 2018: “A temperature rise of more than two degrees is not inherently dangerous.”

The magazine has also run anti-net zero articles by Craig Mackinlay, a Tory peer and the current director of the GWPF, and similar articles by Steve Baker, a former GWPF director and Tory MP who spoke at a U.S. fundraiser for the group in February.

The Critic and Bayliss were contacted for comment.