Lois Perry

Credit: GB News

Credentials

Unknown.

Background

Lois Perry is right-wing commentator and founder of the UK climate science denial group CAR26, which was founded in the run-up to COP26 in Glasgow.¹

Perry was elected as the leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) on May 13, 2024,² but stepped down after spending 34 days in the role.³

Perry was formerly the South East Representative for climate denier Laurence Fox’s Reclaim Party, and announced her run for leader of UKIP in January 2024 on GB News, where she is a regular commentator.⁴ ⁵ ⁶

CAR26 was officially registered as a company involved in “market research and public opinion polling” in September 2021 by Perry.⁷

Perry is a former associate at public relations firm 6 Hillgrove, where she was listed as an employee until December 2021.⁸ ⁹ The firm was founded by Perry’s ex-husband, Richard Hillgrove.¹⁰

CAR26 has campaigned on the idea that the UK should hold a referendum on net zero, with a poll it commissioned featuring on the front page of the Telegraph in October 2021.¹¹

Perry has made regular appearances on GB News, where she has played down the existence of and threats posed by climate change and attacked climate action measures.¹² She also hosts a YouTube show, “The Lois and Andre Show”, with TalkTV host Andre Walker, which is sponsored by CAR26.¹³

Perry has expressed her support for the expansion of the fossil fuel industry, including fracking, and has attacked renewable energy.

Stance on Climate Change

January 28, 2024

In January 2024, Perry spoke on GB News about running to be leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), and stated that it’s her “personal belief” that climate change “is happening” but “is not man made”. Perry added: “Even if it was, is it necessarily a bad thing?”¹⁴

Perry also claimed that “slight global warming” has led to “global greening” and “increased agricultural output”, and that “anti net zero is a good way of describing the UKIP policy”.

She added: “I don’t believe it’s a big problem, I believe that actually there are bigger problems in the things that we’re doing to tackle it, i.e. people freezing to death in their home or not being able to afford food because they put the heating on.”

July 25, 2022

Commenting on Rishi Sunak’s campaign to be the next UK Prime Minister in a GB News appearance, Perry said: “He’s totally pro the net zero stuff. He is not going to reverse any of that”.“¹⁵

In contrast, Perry praised Liz Truss – who was also campaigning to become Prime Minister – saying: “She’s already said that we’re going to be doing fracking or she’s going to be looking very closely at doing fracking again. She’s not into all the green stuff at all. We’ll put it this way. She might have to do it a little bit, but Rishi really believes it and really loves it and his 9-year-old is directing his policy.”

July 19, 2022

In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News about the UK’s record temperatures, Perry argued:¹⁶

“Of course, those temperature records only started 120 years ago and there is a huge span of history, including [the] Roman warming period, mediaeval warming period, which were much hotter. They were growing grapes and making wine in Manchester. There is a huge amount of scientific evidence that you don’t ever hear because people are no-platformed, they’re sacked from their jobs, they’re just not funded.”

Perry continued:

“The whole net zero thing is about – well, I believe – is about control. It’s about controlling how much we travel, […] whether we can go out, leave the house. We’ve had covid lockdowns, now we’re looking at, in the last couple of days the whole concept of a climate lockdown, i.e. it’s too hot to go out. There is a huge amount of vested interest, people are making money, […] ESG, all of the different financial instruments that have been put in place.”

Perry added that she doesn’t “believe [cutting carbon emissions] has any impact on the environment whatsoever” and concluded:

“There weren’t many cars in the Roman period when it was a lot hotter and we know that for a fact, and there weren’t many cars and there weren’t many coal-powered fire stations in the mediaeval period, in the Roman period.[…] Dr, I think it’s, Otto Weiss, has been talking about cyclical solar patterns which show that it’s absolutely nothing to do with CO2 whatsoever. The thing is, I should be allowed to think that, and it should be allowed to be debated. And physicists and scientists that believe that should be allowed to go on platforms. […] The other scientists’ arguments would be absolutely torn apart by anyone who has not been paid off to say this absolute nonsense.”

When asked by Farage what the government should do with its net zero targets, Perry replied: “They should scrap them, they’re ridiculous and they’re actually human hating.”

During the interview, Perry confirmed that CAR26 is calling for a referendum on net zero.

Key Quotes

October 23, 2023

Perry appeared on a GB News debate, hosted by Nana Akua, alongside meteorologist Jim Dale to discuss the role climate change played in a storm that struck the UK. Perry claimed in the debate that summaries of IPCC reports, which document the current scientific understanding of climate change, reflect “a political agenda for the people that are doing the press releases and the politicians” that have “nothing to do with being green” and are instead “all about an anti-capitalist agenda”.¹⁷

October 7, 2023

Appearing on a GB News panel with meteorologist Jim Dale hosted by Nana Akua, Perry argued that climate change was “alleged” and that “it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the narrative is just not rubbing with the British public”. She added that climate policy was being used to erode personal freedoms: “there’s a national plan to stop us flying and to stop us going anywhere […] there won’t be any nipping anywhere or flying anywhere or doing anything.”¹⁸

September 29, 2023

Writing in The Express, Perry argued that the national 20mph speed limit imposed by the Labour government in Wales was “less about preserving lives and more about encroaching upon our cherished freedoms”.¹⁹

She invoked the 15-minute city conspiracy theory, which holds that measures to reduce air pollution and travel times in cities are a trojan horse for measures to ensure that people are unable to leave their homes, or “to stop us driving to a country pub or motoring to an English Heritage castle with the family at the weekend”.²⁰

She also claimed vehicles driving at the lower speed of 20mph release more nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide than those driving at higher speeds.

September 16, 2023

During a GB News panel debate with meteorologist Jim Dale hosted by Nana Akua, Perry claimed that tax exemptions on electric vehicles (EVs) were “about getting people out of their cars” and had “nothing to do with being greener”. She stated that the policies were “about keeping us at home, in our little boxes looking at screens”, which she accused Dale of being in favour of.²¹

Akua said that Dale’s argument about electric cars was an explanation of how time is needed for electric vehicles to become more affordable, as opposed to consenting to reducing mobility for drivers.

Perry also argued that the tax exemption for EVs would be used as justification to “tax us by stealth in other places”, citing the example of subsidies for heat pumps as a means to encourage shifts to heat pumps that “nobody wants”.

Perry also falsely claimed that lifetime carbon emissions from electric vehicles were higher than that of petrol and diesel vehicles.²²

September 6, 2023

In a column for The Express, Perry argued that the Conservatives’ Energy Bill – which passed into law in September 2023 and holds that landlords renting properties that do not meet energy efficiency requirements could be liable to fines and criminal prosecution – “set off major alarm bells amongst freedom-lovers across the country”.²³

She added that “many are questioning the necessity and feasibility of the draconian net zero measures” and called for a referendum on net zero in the name of “fundamental democratic principles”. Perry cited public appetite for a referendum according to polling conducted by her organisation CAR26.

August 12, 2023

Lois Perry appeared on a GB News panel alongside Reform UK mayoral candidate Howard Cox to argue that government actions to reduce car usage are “a war on motorists” that have “nothing to do with air quality” and were instead based on “net zero ideology” and “neo-Marxism”.²⁴

When another panellist cited the severity of climate change as a reason for the policies, Perry doubted the validity of the scientific consensus on climate change, claiming that “other climate scientists are available”, and that “You pay your money, you get the answer that you want”. Perry did not say who was “paying” climate scientists.

Perry also said “there’s nothing green about electric cars, they’re the least green things that you can ever have”.

August 4, 2023

Lois Perry appeared on an episode of the Heritage Foundation’s Climate Change Roundtable podcast in which the host said the world is “not even close” to being “on fire”. Perry claimed that climate change reporting was “nonsense stories” that looked like they were written by artificial intelligence: “they just put in ‘climate change’, random wokey stuff, and come up with these stories.”²⁵

May 20, 2023

In a debate with meteorologist Jim Dale on GB News, Perry downplayed the existence of climate change and argued that renewable energy technologies are a “racket”, instead calling for continued use of fossil gas rather than hydrogen. She claimed that there had been “no warming for ten years” and used that as evidence as to why the scientific community favours the term ‘climate change’ over ‘global warming’.²⁶