The Brexit Party is tying itself in knots over its position on climate change, after a mailout from the party appeared to suggest it was set to acknowledge the climate emergency – a move that would put it at odds with many high-profile climate science deniers in Nigel Farage’s organisation.
A mailout from the party reads:
When asked about the statement, the party’s Head of Press, Gawain Towler, denied the Brexit Party had any climate or energy policy at all currently, claiming the statement was a “suggested draft from a keen young staffer”. He said the mailout “was not signed off policy” and declined to provide DeSmog with an original copy.
The news comes as climate change has shot up the political agenda, with voters paying renewed attention to political parties’ stance on the issue in the wake of global school strikes and protests by Extinction Rebellion.
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The mailout has angered notable climate science deniers in the UK, including blogger Paul Homewood and Spectator columnist James Delingpole.
In a blog post, Homewood said the email showed the Brexit Party had “fallen for the climate emergency nonsense” and complained that his offer of advice to the party on climate and energy issues had been “fobbed off” earlier in the year.
Homewood, a retired accountant, whose writings often formed the basis for articles by the late Telegraph columnist Christopher Booker, authored the latest report for the UK‘s principal climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.
Delingpole, who has called climate change the “biggest scam in the history of the world”, questioned the party over the statement. Writing in the far-right media outlet Breitbart, he explained:
“I asked the party for a response to this. Initially, it was claimed that the story was fake news and that the party had never said any such thing. Then they changed their tune.”
“The party’s chairman Richard Tice told me that this was merely a discussion document which had accidentally been put out as if it were policy – but which it now planned formally to withdraw.”
Delingpole claims he then went on to tell Tice there were “plenty of wiser heads” it could consult on climate change, suggesting the Global Warming Policy Foundation and Homewood.
DeSmog approached a number of Brexit Party MEPs who have rejected climate science in the past or opposed government action on the issue for comment, but did not receive a response.
Photo credit: Gage Skidmore/Flickr/CC BY–SA 2.0
