Sarah Pochin, Reform UK MP for Runcorn and Helsby, is facing pressure over a £5,000 donation from food industry millionaires that stand to benefit from her campaigning.
According to an investigation by the Good Law Project and DeSmog, Pochin accepted the payment from Catherine Wantling of Etonbrook Ltd on 19 May to support the work of her parliamentary office.
The Wantling family are multi-millionaire food industry heavyweights, involved in several businesses including Meadow Vale Foods, a frozen chicken company with an annual turnover of £140 million which they co-founded in 1989.
The Wantling family businesses are subject to new legislation, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme, which puts the cost of managing household packaging waste on the firms supplying the products. These fees are then passed on to local authorities to fund collection, sorting, recycling and disposal.
Pochin has been campaigning heavily on this issue in recent months – saying that producers are being “unfairly penalised” and calling on the government to abolish the scheme.
In the weeks following the donation from Wantling and Etonbrook, Pochin also posed a series of questions to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, questioning the negative employment impacts of the EPR.
There’s no evidence to suggest that Pochin asked these questions or engaged in any other campaigning on this issue in exchange for the £5,000 donation, which would be a breach of House of Commons rules, but campaigners are calling for a parliamentary investigation in order to ensure full transparency.
“Given that Reform are swamped with donation scandals right now, it is crucial that an investigation takes place to establish the facts,” said Good Law Project campaign manager Graeme McGregor. “Clearly, the frozen meat lobby has something to gain from cuts to plastic packaging taxes. Whether that had anything to do with this donation is a fact that needs to be established for the sake of democratic transparency.”
Several of Pochin’s parliamentary questions focused on the glass industry, and the Runcorn MP has frequently cited the example of Encirc – a glass manufacturer in her constituency. She has claimed that “jobs and investment” are at risk in her seat due to the EPR.
Pochin has suggested that the EPR raises food prices for consumers, despite packaging waste management previously being funded largely by local authorities – paid for by the taxpayer.
The government has responded by saying that fees will be reduced for easier to recycle materials such as glass, while maintaining higher costs for packaging that’s harder to recycle.
Meadow Vale is a member of the British Frozen Food Federation (BFFF), which lobbied against the introduction of the EPR and in recent months has called for the costs on businesses to be reduced.
Questions over Reform’s finances have been intensifying following revelations that party leader Nigel Farage received a £5 million undeclared gift from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne, as well as accommodation, security and campaign support from convicted fraudster George Cottrell.
Prior to his resignation as the MP for Clacton on 6 July, Farage was under investigation by Parliament’s standards commissioner over these undeclared gifts – an investigation that is expected to resume if he wins re-election. Farage’s deputy Richard Tice is also now under investigation by the commissioner for failing to declare a financial interest during a House of Commons debate.
The party, which openly denies climate science, has taken substantial donations from fossil fuel interests, aristocrats, and those linked to offshore tax havens.
Multiple donations to Reform are also being probed by the police.
Reform UK, Pochin, Meadow Vale Foods, and Catherine Wantling were approached for comment.
