Centre for Brexit Policy

Background

The Centre for Brexit Policy (CBP) is a pro-Brexit, free-market thinktank established in March 2020. The group seeks to “trigger a deep and wide debate about what Brexit should mean for the UK” and to “formulate an overarching framework for the UK that maximises the opportunities Brexit affords”, according to its website.¹

The CBP says a “constant theme” of its work will be to promote global free trade. Longer-term, the CBP will also address policy areas including “deregulation, tax reform, national productivity, rebalancing government spending, and energy policy.”²

It supports a “hard” Brexit, calling for “full control over our laws, borders, seas, trade, and courts, regardless of the route taken to achieve these”. It also “expects to support ministers as they pursue a Canada-style free trade deal with Brussels.”³

In a launch paper (PDF), it noted its “deep understanding and close connections” with Government, Parliament and the media.⁴

The organisation brings together numerous politicians and commentators involved in other pro-Brexit groups such as Leave Means Leave and Economists for Free Trade. Prominent figures in the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s principal climate science denial group, also hold positions within the CBP, including GWPF Energy Editor, John Constable.⁵

The CBP is chaired by former Environment Secretary and Conservative MP Owen Paterson, and its directors include Labour MP Graham Stringer and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Sammy Wilson, all of whom have cast doubt on the reality or seriousness of climate change.⁶

In its launch document, the group says it takes inspiration⁷ from the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS), an influential thinktank behind the economic reforms of the 1980s, co-founded by Margaret Thatcher prior to becoming Prime Minister.⁸

CBP Fellow Ruth Lea is also a former Director of the CPS.⁹

The CBP was registered as a company the same week as pro-Brexit business lobby group the Foundation For Independence, chaired by John Longworth.¹⁰

Stance on Climate Change

The CBP has not yet issued any statements on climate change. However, it has close links to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), with several of its members holding positions within the organisation.

CBP members have also cast doubt on climate science themselves. For instance, CBP Director GWPF Trustee Graham Stringer has previously dismissed climate science as “shoddy” and said it should be regarded with scepticism.¹¹ DUP MP Sammy Wilson, also a CBP Director, has described human caused climate change as a “gigantic con.”¹²

Funding

The CBP asks for donations from supporters on its website but it is unclear whether the group also has larger sources of funding.¹³

Annual Reports

According to Companies House, the CBP has not yet released any financial statements.¹⁴

Key People

Leadership

CBP chairman Owen Paterson was a founding member of the official Vote Leave campaign¹⁵ and gave the GWPF’s 2014 annual lecture,¹⁶ which was later revealed to be partly written by GWPF Advisor (and Paterson’s brother-in-law) Viscount Matt Ridley.¹⁷

Paterson also has close ties with US free-market groups that have denied mainstream climate science and lobbied against climate action, including the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.¹⁸ ¹⁹

CBP Executive Director John Longworth is a former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, having been suspended from the role in 2016 after making comments supportive of Brexit, breaching neutrality rules.²⁰

He quickly resigned and went on to co-found the Leave Means Leave pro-Brexit pressure group with Richard Tice, who later became chairman of the Brexit Party,²¹ which has fielded many climate science denying political candidates.²² ²³

Others listed on the CBP‘s “Leadership” page are:²⁴

Graham Stringer MP – Director
Sammy Wilson MP – Director
Matthew Patten – Director
Edgar Miller – Senior Advisor
Nick Wood – Chairman of PR firm Media Intelligence Partners
Matthew Walsh – CEO of PR firm Media Intelligence Partners

Fellows

John Constable, listed as an energy expert by the CBP, is Energy Editor of the Global Warming Policy Forum, the campaigning arm of the GWPF, as well as being a GWPF Advisor.²⁵

Constable is a long-standing critic of UK energy policy, opposing onshore wind farms in particular.²⁶ He was previously Director of Policy and Research at the Renewable Energy Foundation, a group co-founded by TV presenter Noel Edmonds that has strongly criticised wind power. The REF is now chaired by Michael Kelly, a GWPF trustee.²⁷ ²⁸ ²⁹ ³⁰ ³¹

Viscount Matt Ridley, listed as a science and environment expert by the CBP, is a GWPF Advisor, Conservative hereditary peer and the brother-in-law of CBP Chair Owen Paterson.³² ³³ ³⁴

Ridley’s family estate includes a coal mine operated by the company Banks Group. Ridley was chairman of Northern Rock when the bank collapsed in 2007 and has frequently downplayed the seriousness of man-made climate change and criticised mainstream climate science.³⁵ ³⁶ ³⁷

Ruth Lea, listed as an economics expert by the CBP is a Director and Trustee of GWPF, which she joined in 2019. Lea was Director at the Centre for Policy Studies between 2004-2007 and is involved in numerous other pro-Brexit and free-market organisations.³⁸ ³⁹ ⁴⁰ ⁴¹

Patrick Minford is a Professor of Applied Economics at Cardiff Business School and chairs the pro-Brexit Economists for Free Trade group. Minford is also an Advisor to the TaxPayers’ Alliance pressure group which has campaigned against climate policies and was a close advisor to Margaret Thatcher while Prime Minister, supporting the controversial poll tax.⁴² ⁴³ ⁴⁴ ⁴⁵

Others listed on the CBP‘s “Fellows” page are:⁴⁶

Angus Dalgleish
Barnabas Reynolds
Martin Howe QC
Michael Burrage
Robert Tombs
Roger Bootle
Hans Maessen
Sir Iain Duncan Smith

Actions

May 25, 2021

Senior Fellow and Economist at the Centre for Brexit Policy Catherine McBride was quoted in The Daily Express outlining plans for an agricultural sector based on carbon capture and storage (CCS). She reportedly stated that: “We need to start rewarding farmers for soil carbon sequestration and planting carbon crops during the winter.”⁴⁷

McBride also disputed the efficacy of renewable energy and advocated for the expansion of nuclear power, reportedly stating: “I know a lot of people don’t like this but we really have to expand on nuclear energy in the UK,” and adding: “I believe that doing more small nuclear power plants would be much better than covering the country in solar panels and wind turbines that generally don’t last long enough to really pay back the cost of their production.”

March 21, 2020

The Centre for Brexit Policy officially launched in March 2020 with a paper outlining the group’s aims and objectives. The document states CBP’s intention to “provide a focus for the development of post-Brexit public policy” and ensure that Britain “fully takes back control” as it leaves the EU. It states that it will maintain a “singular” focus on Brexit, but will address related opportunities “across all policy areas”.

The group says it is aiming for the “adoption of its proposals and policies by government” and that it will be assisted by its “deep understanding and close connections” with Government, Parliament and the media. The launch was reported in The Telegraph, which said the thinktank would “keep up pressure on government” over the UK’s exit from the EU.⁴⁸ ⁴⁹