Lord Nigel Vinson

Lord Nigel Vinson

Credentials

Background

Lord Nigel Vinson, a Conservative peer, is one of a handful of known donors to the UK climate science denial group the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).2โ€œLord Vinson,โ€ Parliament.uk. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/QNNtE Vinson retired from the House of Lords in July 2022.3Lord Vinson,” GOV.uk. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/c6oIm

Vinson was made a Conservative peer in 1985. He is also a former director of Barclays Bank (1982-1986) and is known for having been instrumental to the rise of Margaret Thatcher.4โ€œLord Vinson,โ€ Parliament.uk. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/QNNtE 5Mike Kelly. โ€œIs Nigel Vinson, the man who helped shape Thatcherite policies, a closet Socialist?โ€ Chronicle, March 28, 2015. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/uJEYm

Alongside Thatcher, Vinson co-founded the Centre for Policy Studies, an opaque free-market British think tank. Vinson is also a prominent funder of the right-wing think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), which has received money from oil and tobacco firms. Vinson was made โ€œLife Vice-Presidentโ€ of the IEA, having worked closely with its first director general, Sir Ralph Harris.6Mike Kelly. โ€œIs Nigel Vinson, the man who helped shape Thatcherite policies, a closet Socialist?โ€ Chronicle, March 28, 2015. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/uJEYm

Vinson was a member of the advisory council for the pro-Brexit campaign group Business for Britain, founded by Matthew Elliott, former Chief Executive of the Taxpayersโ€™ Alliance.7James Crisp. โ€œBrexit campaign leadership dominated by climate-sceptics,โ€ Euractiv, May 24, 2016. Archived May 20, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/1fzMF

Since 2013, Vinson has been patron of The Freedom Association, a โ€œlibertarianโ€ pressure group which sparked controversy in the 1980s for campaigning against boycotts of apartheid-era South Africa. In 1988, the association threatened to seek a legal injunction against the BBC to prevent the broadcaster from showing a Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute which it called โ€œanti-apartheid propaganda.โ€ Other prominent anti-EU politicians sit on the organisation’s council, including Christopher Chope, Roger Helmer, Daniel Hannan and Philip Davies, as well as climate science denier Christopher Monckton and Patrick Minford, leader of the pro-Brexit Economists for Free Trade.8โ€œCouncil & Management Committee,โ€ The Freedom Association. Archived April 18, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Lcxqd 9Marina Hyde. โ€œNorth Korea set their World Cup target: happiness for the Dear Leader,โ€ The Guardian, June 14, 2010. Archived April 18, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/YvWq4 10โ€œGet the record straight on Norris McWhirter,โ€ The Guardian, November 30, 2017. Archived April 18, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/aKUX8 11โ€œCouncil & Management Committee,โ€ The Freedom Association. Archived May 20, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Lr6rf

The Freedom Association ran the pro-Brexit โ€œBetter Off Outโ€ campaign and has organised events at Conservative Party conferences, with speakers including TaxPayers’ Alliance founder Matthew Elliott. The organisation’s council numbers various prominent climate science deniers and sceptics among its members, such as Christopher Chope, Daniel Hannan, Roger Helmer and Christopher Monckton, as well as Patrick Minford, who leads the anti-EU Economists for Free Trade.12Brendan Carlin, Jonathan Isaby. โ€œTory MPs sign up to anti-EU campaign,โ€ The Telegraph, April 27, 2006. Archived April 18, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Lw1XF 13โ€œThe Freedom Zone,โ€ The Freedom Association. Archived September 11, 2010. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/8Aixs 14โ€œCouncil & Management Committee,โ€ The Freedom Association. Archived April 18, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/Lcxqd

Nigel Vinson Charitable Trust

Vinson was exposed as one of the Global Warming Policy Foundationโ€™s funders by a DeSmog UK investigation in 2014. Vinson has donated at least ยฃ50,000 to the GWPF through his charity, according to accounts submitted to the Charity Commission.15Brendan Montague. โ€œExposed: Lawsonโ€™s Climate Denial Donorsโ€™ Links to Tobacco and Oil Backed Think Tank,โ€ DeSmog UK, September 2, 2014. 16โ€œNIGEL VINSON CHARITABLE TRUST,โ€ Charity Commission. Archived March 20, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9Gr5u

The Nigel Vinson Charitable Trust (NVCT) has also funded the anti-wind energy Renewable Energy Foundation, set up by TV presenter Noel Edmonds, as well as the Institute for Policy Research, a grant-making charity which financially supports many of the right-wing, pro-Brexit organisations based at Tufton Street. The NVCT has also funded Civitas, Open Europe, the Adam Smith Institute, the Politics and Economics Research Trust (founded by Matthew Elliott), Respublica, and Frank Furedi. Furedi is a key figure at the libertarian Spiked magazine, which DeSmog revealed to have received donations from the US oil billionaire climate science denial funders, the Koch Family Foundations.17โ€œNIGEL VINSON CHARITABLE TRUST,โ€ Charity Commission. Archived March 20, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9Gr5u 18Mike Small. โ€œRevealed: US Oil Billionaire Charles Koch Funds UK Anti-Environment Spiked Network,โ€ DeSmog, December 6, 2018.

The NVCT donated ยฃ5.5m to the private University of Buckingham in 2016, which led to the establishment of the Vinson Centre, a collaboration between the university and the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs, โ€œdedicated to exploring the wide range of ideas, arguments and issues associated with the idea of a โ€˜constitution of libertyโ€™โ€, according to an IEA press release.19โ€œNIGEL VINSON CHARITABLE TRUST,โ€ Charity Commission. Archived March 20, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9Gr5u 20โ€œIEA opens the Vinson Centre in collaboration with the University of Buckingham,โ€ IEA, November 28, 2018. Archived December 7, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/rfiAA

The NVCT has also funded the Hampden Trust, part of the libertarian Freedom Association pressure group, which organised a โ€œClimate Weekโ€ at the University of York in 2009 promoting climate science denial. According to an archived page of the Freedom Association’s website, speakers included Nils-Axel Mรถrner and David Holland, who took the University of East Anglia to an information tribunal over the โ€œClimategateโ€ email controversy.21โ€œHampden Trust supports climate debate at University of York,โ€ Freedom Association, July 27, 2009. Archived August 9, 2011. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/xWIJt 22โ€œMore speakers at Climate Week,โ€ Freedom Association, August 21, 2009. Archived July 6, 2010. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/DBeEV 23โ€œClimategate: University of East Anglia U-turn in climate change row,โ€ The Telegraph, November 28, 2009. Archived April 9, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/UhOP1

Stance on Climate Change

Lord Vinson is known for being an early funder of the GWPF, calling the group a โ€œvery admirable institution.โ€24Brendan Montague. โ€œExposed: Lawsonโ€™s Climate Denial Donorsโ€™ Links to Tobacco and Oil Backed Think Tank,โ€ DeSmog UK, September 2, 2014.

The GWPF has released reports claiming that โ€œpolicies to โ€˜stop climate changeโ€™ are based on climate models that completely failed to predict the lack of warming for the past two decadesโ€ and contends that โ€œcarbon dioxide has been mercilessly demonized as โ€˜carbon pollutionโ€™, when in fact it is a benefit to the planet.โ€25Andrew Montford. โ€œUnintended Consequences of Climate Change Policyโ€ (PDF), Global Warming Policy Foundation, January 2015. Archived August 17, 2015.

Key Quotes

September 2014

Speaking to the Guardian, Vinson said:26Damian Carrington. โ€œTwo secret funders of Nigel Lawsonโ€™s climate sceptic organisation revealed,โ€ The Guardian, September 2, 2014. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/0YRUz

โ€œI am very proud to fund [the GWPF]. You have to put a question mark over climate change if over the last 14 years the world has not got any hotter.โ€

Key Deeds

2018

The University of Buckingham opened the Vinson Centre, a collaboration between the university and the free-market Institute of Economic Affairs, โ€œdedicated to exploring the wide range of ideas, arguments and issues associated with the idea of a โ€˜constitution of libertyโ€™โ€, according to an IEA press release.27โ€œIEA opens the Vinson Centre in collaboration with the University of Buckingham,โ€ IEA, November 28, 2018. Archived December 7, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/rfiAA

2016

The Nigel Vinson Charitable Trust donated ยฃ5.5m to the private University of Buckingham. 28โ€œNIGEL VINSON CHARITABLE TRUST,โ€ Charity Commission. Archived March 20, 2019. Archive.fo URL: http://archive.fo/9Gr5u

2013

Lord Vinson donated ยฃ10,000 to the GWPF. This second grant to the climate denial think tank was recorded alongside a donation to the Princeโ€™s Countryside Fund under the category, โ€œFor the advancement of environmental protection or improvement.โ€29Brendan Montague. โ€œExposed: Lawsonโ€™s Climate Denial Donorsโ€™ Links to Tobacco and Oil Backed Think Tank,โ€ DeSmog UK, September 2, 2014.

2012

Vinson, a Eurosceptic, threatened to pull out of the Tory party and defect to UKIP unless then Prime Minister David Cameron loosened British ties with Brussels.30โ€œTory peer Nigel Vinson warns he could switch to UKIP,โ€ The Journal, June 25, 2013. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/0F8Qd

2011

Lord Vinson donated ยฃ5,000 to the GWPF in 2011, two years after the group was founded by Lord Nigel Lawson.31Brendan Montague. โ€œExposed: Lawsonโ€™s Climate Denial Donorsโ€™ Links to Tobacco and Oil Backed Think Tank,โ€ DeSmog UK, September 2, 2014.

February 2008

Lord Vinson voted no to setting a target of reducing emissions by 80 percent by 2050 under the Climate Change Act.32โ€œClimate Change Bill โ€” Target for 2050 is 80% โ€” rejected,โ€ TheyWorkForYou.Com. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/TOIDl

Affiliations

Other Affiliations

View a full list of Vinson’s affiliations at his Parliament.UK profile. Additional examples below:43โ€œLord Vinson,โ€ Parliament.uk. Archived December 11, 2018. Archive.fo URL: https://archive.fo/QNNtE

  • Mercury Asset Management โ€” Director (1985 โ€“ 1992).
  • Barclays Bank โ€” Director (1982 โ€“ 1988).
  • Elecra Investments Trust โ€” Director/Vice Chairman (1975 โ€“ 1998).
  • British Airports Authority โ€” Director (1973 โ€“ 1980).
  • Fleming Income and Growth โ€” Chairman (1972 โ€“ 2001).
  • Plastic Coatings Ltd โ€” Founding Chairman (1952 โ€“ 1972).

Social Media

Nigel Vinson does not appear to be active on social media.

Publications

Nigel Vinson does not appear to regularly contribute to editorials or to have authored any books.

Other Resources

Resources

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