Centre for Policy Studies

Background

The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a free-market thinktank founded by Sir Keith Joseph and former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1974, promoting an ideology of small government and economic liberalism.

Although the CPS claims to be non-partisan, historically it has been closely linked to the Conservative Party, with a strong influence on British politics since it was founded.

In 2014, the Centre for Policy Studies launched CapX, a news site designed to promote “popular capitalism” and “defend free markets.” Its editor-in-chief is Robert Colvile, director of the CPS and previously Head of Comment at the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.¹ Colvile co-authored the 2019 Conservative manifesto.²

The CPS is chaired by businessman and Conservative donor Michael Spencer, who was appointed to the House of Lords in November 2020.³ Its deputy chairman is Sir Graham Brady, the former chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs.⁴

Other board members include Anthony Bamford — the chairman of construction giant JCB, major Conservative donor⁵ and past backer of the TaxPayers’ Alliance — as well as editor of the Spectator magazine Fraser Nelson, Conservative Party treasurer Graham Edwards, former Conservative chairman Ben Elliot, and 2019 Conservative manifesto co-author Rachel Wolf.⁶

Until January 2020, the CPS was chaired by Lord Saatchi, co-founder of the Saatchi and Saatchi advertising company and former chairman of the Conservative Party.⁷

David Frost, a Conservative member of the House of Lords since 2020 and Boris Johnson’s Chief Brexit Negotiator, joined CPS as a “research fellow” in 2023 to “work on a major policy project echoing ‘Stepping Stones’, the seminal report prepared by John Hoskyns and Norman Strauss for Margaret Thatcher in 1977.”⁸

Tom Clougherty, the CPS‘s Head of Tax, was previously executive director of the Adam Smith Institute, another free-market think tank, before moving to the US to become managing editor at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian group that has frequently downplayed the threat of climate change, as well as senior editor at the Koch-funded Cato Institute.⁹ Callum Price, Head of External Relations, has previously worked at the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Institute of Economic Affairs.¹⁰

Nick King, the CPS‘s Head of Business, was lead policy adviser to former Chancellor Sajid Javid from 2012-2017, and Liam Vernon, the group’s Digital Communications Officer was previously Deputy Editor at the BrexitCentral news site.¹¹

Several CPS board members have financial interests in oil and gas companies, according to reporting by DeSmog including chair Michael Spencer. Spencer is the majority shareholder of Deltic Energy, which has been awarded multiple government North Sea exploration licences.¹²

During the year to September 2022, CPS directors donated £1 million to the thinktank. Turnover was £650,000 during the year and ‘other operating income’ was £1.5 million, meaning that the CPS board contributed nearly half (47 percent) of its income during the period.¹³

A joint investigation published by DeSmog and Democracy for Sale revealed that Conservative Party donors had given £6.8 million to Tufton Street think tanks between 2019-2024, £10,000 of which was donated by Conservative Peer Lord Moynihan to the CPS.¹⁴

The CPS has strongly supported new North Sea oil and gas drilling in recent years.

In a March 2022 economic bulletin, it recommended that the government “look at accelerating regulatory approval for upcoming oil and gas projects such as Rosebank [Phase 1], Clair South, Glengorm, Cambo and Bentley [Phase 2]”.¹⁵ The bulletin added that introducing a windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies would be a “terrible idea” and “completely self-defeating”.

The group has also supported the controversial practice of fracking for shale gas. In response to the release of the government’s new “energy security” strategy in April 2022, the CPS included fracking in a list of “significant missed opportunities” by the government, along with onshore wind and home insulation.¹⁶

This followed years of lobbying from the CPS on the subject, including a report in December 2013 entitled, “Why every serious environmentalist should favour fracking”.¹⁷

The CPS previously regularly published work by climate science denier and anti-renewables advocate Rupert Darwall,¹⁸ who was previously listed as a Research Fellow on the organisation’s website and has written for the Global Warming Policy Foundation.¹⁹

The CPS has also published a number of reports and essays calling for greater action on climate change, including through a “carbon border tax” focused on carbon-intensive industries.²⁰ ²¹

Stance on Climate Change

January 5, 2020

CPS director Robert Colvile wrote a comment article in the Times arguing that parts of the UK with the potential for large clean technology sectors, such as wind energy, hydrogen and electric vehicles, “could well be the Tories’ new industrial heartlands”.²²

He later wrote:

“Any serious effort will be beset by vested interests — both people pleading for money for their pet projects, and the “green blob” seeking to lure the government into ever more interfering, meddling, regulating and taxing in the name of saving the planet. And nothing will ever be enough for Greta, who will continue to howl green murder.”

September 30, 2013

The CPS republished a Wall Street Journal article by Rupert Darwall entitled “The Political Science of Global Warming” in which he argued that the “U.N.’s latest climate change report should be its last,” asking:²³

“How can the IPCC be more confident that more than half the temperature rise since the mid-20th century is caused by greenhouse-gas emissions when it is less sure of the climatic impact of carbon dioxide? The explanation is that IPCC reports, especially the summaries for policymakers, are primarily designed for political consumption.”

The article ended:²⁴

“The body’s flagrant disregard for the InterAcademy Council’s findings and its reluctance to address the 15-year warming pause are symptomatic of a failure of leadership. The conclusion is unavoidable: The IPCC is unreformable and the Fifth Assessment Report should be the IPCC‘s last.”

March 2007

The CPS released a publication entitled Climate Change: a guide to the scientific uncertainties by Martin Livermore, director of the Scientific Alliance, a group that rejects mainstream climate science, stating:²⁵

“The scientific understanding of climate change is far from complete (despite claims to the contrary).”

The report claimed that the science behind climate change was too uncertain for policy action, and governments should prioritise energy security over reducing carbon emissions. It stated that the climate was constantly changing, and that the science behind the attribution of climate change to human activity was not settled.

Key Actions

February 2, 2024

DeSmog revealed that Deltic Energy, an oil and gas firm part-owned by CPS chairman Michael Spencer, had been awarded new licences in the latest North Sea oil and gas licensing round. Spencer currently holds an 18.8 percent (£4.5 million) stake in the firm.²⁶

The revelation comes after DeSmog reported in November 2023 that the Centre for Policy Studies had been pushing for more North sea oil and gas extraction.²⁷

November 2023

A DeSmog investigation revealed the Centre for Policy studies had been pushing for further North Sea oil and gas drilling while several of its board members hold financial interests in the industry.²⁸

DeSmog reported that five of the thinktank’s board had financial interests in North Sea oil and gas, including its chair Lord Spencer, a major Conservative Party donor whose exploration company was bidding for oil and gas exploration licences in the late 2023 round.

August 19, 2022

Centre of Policy Studies director Robert Colvile tweeted a thread in favour of solar farms, saying:

“I see Rishi has joined Liz in highlighting the scourge of solar panels on our precious farmland. We have 23 million acres of farmland. Even if we quintuple solar output (the govt’s target), it would take up roughly 1/200th of it. Also you can usually still farm on the land!”²⁹

He added in a thread:

“it is really weird to be mounting a dogged Nimbyist campaign against a thing most people really like (including farmers/the NFU). Especially at a time when producing more cheap, secure, renewable energy in your own country might be a really good idea”.

December 2021

Centre for Policy Studies director Jon Moulton wrote an article for the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) in which he wrote: “If the UK was to reduce its emissions to nothing by 2050, it would have no detectable effect unless the rest of the world did the same thing. But there’s no sign at all that this would happen.”³⁰

Moulton – who wrote in the first paragraph “I’m not a climate-change denier” – also cited the work of controversial scientist Steven Koonin to defend his perspective.

Moulton concluded the article:

“You can easily conclude that the UK’s net-zero target is a very bad deal for the British people. It won’t protect them against climate change; the costs are disproportionate to the threat; and those costs are ruinous in themselves. This legally binding target doesn’t make sense. Readers should rely more on numbers and less on emotion”.

May 19, 2021

Tony Lodge, research fellow at the Centre for Policy Studies, was quoted in The Telegraph, commenting on an incident in which France threatened to cut off Jersey’s power supply. Arguing that this “helped expose Britain’s growing overdependence on imported power,” Lodge stated: “Ministers must now prioritise energy security in tandem with decarbonisation.”³¹

Advocating for the development of a reliable supply of domestic energy, Lodge was quoted as saying: “The real key for weather dependent renewables is storage,” adding: “My concern has always been being on the end of wires from the Continent.”

January 21, 2021

The CPS published a report which advocated for the development of the UK’s nuclear power sector, stating that nuclear energy “could also play a significant role in decarbonising heat that is currently generated via fossil fuels.”³²

While the report acknowledged the advantages of renewable energy, stating that nuclear power “would complement Britain’s booming renewables portfolio and help to manage periods of variability,” the press release accompanying it stated that the lack of investment in nuclear energy “could lead to the government having to choose between meeting Net Zero and keeping the lights on.”³³

January 7, 2021

Richard Sharp, a CPS board member, was named as Chairman of the BBC, stepping down from the CPS board at the same time.³⁴ ³⁵

November 19, 2020

In an article for City AM, CPS researcher Eamonn Ives acknowledged the environmental benefits of road pricing, writing: “Throw in the environmental benefits of cleaner air and lower carbon emissions, plus the shoring up of Treasury revenues as income from fuel duty dwindles with the ascent of electric vehicles, and the benefits of road pricing really do start to stack up.”³⁶

October 16, 2020

The government announced that the CPS’ Director Robert Colvile was one of four ‘experts’ appointed to the Strategic Trade Advisory Group (STAG), described as a “forum for high-level strategic discussions between government, and stakeholders representing a cross-section of interests from all parts of the UK on trade policy matters.”³⁷

September 7, 2020

Writing in The Times in response to protests outside 55 Tufton Street, where the CPS is based, Robert Colvile, its Director, claimed that “everywhere you look, people are quietly and seriously getting on with working out how to make the economy greener without making the public poorer. All Extinction Rebellion is doing — apart from making a titanic nuisance of itself — is making environmental progress harder, by convincing normal people that going green is going to be a massive headache.”³⁸

Colvile also wrote, “as a journalist I’ve written repeatedly about climate change, and devoted chapters of my book about the acceleration of modern life to humanity’s alarming impact on the planet.” Colvile suggested that BP and other large corporations had made significant efforts to adopt green technologies, and that Extinction Rebellion advocated a return to the soil.

March 13, 2020

The CPS published a report by Research Fellow Tony Lodge calling for a carbon border tax, a summary of which said the upcoming COP26 UN summit was a “chance for Britain to show global leadership – and incentivise our trading partners to lower their own emissions”.³⁹

Lodge said:

“Britain’s new legal commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 carries Herculean responsibilities to decarbonise the energy, transport, industry and housing sectors. A carbon Border Tax would provide a far more accurate picture of Britain’s true carbon footprint, deter carbon offshoring and reduce global carbon emissions. It would also establish a clear British policy lead on climate change as the COP 26 summit approaches.”

February 8, 2017

Along with Civitas, and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the Centre for Policy Studies received the lowest possible score from independent watchdog Transparify in its latest transparency ratings, as reported by DeSmog UK.⁴⁰ The score referred to levels of transparency in expenditure and funding sources, and the report by Transparify included CPA in a list of seven “highly opaque and deceptive think tanks in Britain that take money from hidden hands behind closed doors”.⁴¹

DeSmog UK previously revealed how the CPS, IEA, and Civitas operate as part of a network of organisations based around Westminster’s 55 Tufton Street that pushed for the UK to leave the EU while spreading climate science misinformation.

September 2017

A new pro-Brexit think tank called The Institute for Free Trade (IFT) was launched, sharing an office at 57 Tufton Street with the Centre for Policy Studies.

The president of the IFT is Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, who has previously spoken events hosted by the US-based Heritage Foundation, a known anti-environmental group.⁴² This represents another link in the network of connections between the UK’s pro-Brexit figures and US climate science deniers.⁴³

August 1, 2016

In an article for The Times, Matt Ridley cited a Centre for Policy Studies publication authored by Rupert Darwall claiming that renewable subsidies were harming the UK energy market.⁴⁴

The CPS has regularly published work by climate science denier Rupert Darwall.⁴⁵ Matt Ridley is an advisor to the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), a well known climate science denial organisation.

June, 2016

Lord Howard Stanley Kalms, director of the Centre for Policy Studies between 1991 and 2001, donated £10,000 to the Vote Leave campaign, bringing his total donations to the group to £40,000.⁴⁶

Kalms’ link to the Vote Leave group serves to further display the network of connections between pro-Brexit lobby groups and climate science denial, as DeSmog UK has previously mapped.⁴⁷

March, 2007

The Centre for Policy Studies published ‘Climate Change: a guide to the scientific uncertainties’, a document that downplays the issue of anthropogenic climate change and claims that the science behind it is not settled. Within it, the group describe international climate policy such as the Kyoto Protocol as “punishment”.⁴⁸

The author of the document was Martin Livermore, who is on the advisory board of the Scientific Alliance, a climate science denial group.

September, 2006

Then Director of CPS, Ruth Lea suggested in a letter to The Telegraph that we need not worry about Climate Change, since the last time the climate changed it gave rise to civilisation. The scientist whose research she claimed to be referencing denounced this, saying she had grossly misrepresented his work.⁴⁹

Resources

1
“Our Team,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 16, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qoyCO
2
“Event: Rob Colvile, co-author of the 2019 Conservative manifesto,” Twickenham Conservatives, December 3, 2020. Archived November 30, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/y6fna
3
“Lord Spencer of Alresford,” UK Parliament. Archived September 22, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/22HCV
4
“Our board,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 16, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/wip/EG5Ia
5
Anna Isaac. “Who is Anthony Bamford, the billionaire ‘super-donor’?,” The Guardian, September 27, 2023. Archived January 4, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.is/GKxcu
6
“Our board,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 16, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/wip/EG5Ia
7
“CPS appoints Michael Spencer as Chairman,” Archive June 23, 2021. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
8
“Lord Frost,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 22, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/LXXjV
9
“Our Team,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 16, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qoyCO
10
“Our Team,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 16, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qoyCO
11
“Our Team,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 16, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/qoyCO
12
“Top Tory Think Tank’s North Sea Oil and Gas ‘Vested Interests’,” DeSmog, November 7, 2023.
13
“Centre for Policy Studies Limited: Financial Statements for the year ended 30 September 2022,” Companies House. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
14
Peter Geoghegan, Lucas Amin and Sam Bright. “Tory Donors Have Pumped Almost £7 Million into Tufton Street Since 2019,” DeSmog, June 13, 2024.
15
Karl Williams. “Economic Bulletin: Back to the 1970s?,” Centre for Policy Studies, March 21, 2022. Archived December 10, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/iq47j
16
“CPS welcomes energy security strategy, but warns of missed opportunities,” Centre for Policy Studies, April 7, 2022. Archived December 3, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/TZb19
17
Richard A. Muller and Elizabeth A. Muller. “Why every serious environmentalist should favour fracking,” Centre for Policy Studies, December 6, 2013. Archived November 28, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/MnPSW
18
“Search results: Rupert Darwall,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 22, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/w8UXi
19
“Five star review for The Age of Global Warming,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived December 28, 2020. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
20
Tony Lodge. “Carbon Border Tax would stop Britain hiding its true carbon emissions,” Centre for Policy Studies, March 13, 2020. Archived July 7, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/GFlRa
21
“New Blue – Ideas for a New Generation,” Centre for Policy Studies, May 15, 2018. Archived November 12, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/IKFSy
22
Robert Colville. “Green politics with a big splash of blue,” The Times, January 5, 2020. Archived October 5, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.is/HzOVZ
23
“The Political Science of Global Warming (Wall Street Journal),” Centre for Policy Studies, September 30, 2013. Archived December 28, 2020. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
24
Rupert Darwall. “The Political Science of Global Warming,” Wall Street Journal, September 30, 2013. Archived December 28, 2020. Archive URL: https://archive.is/m4di3
25
Martin Livermore. “Climate Change: a guide to the scientific uncertainties,” Centre for Policy Studies, March 2007. Archived October 25, 2019. Archive URL: https://archive.is/l8WiH
26
Sam Bright. “Tory Lord’s Firm Awarded New North Sea Oil and Gas Licences,” DeSmog, February 2, 2024.
27
“Top Tory Think Tank’s North Sea Oil and Gas ‘Vested Interests’,” DeSmog, November 7, 2023.
28
“Top Tory Think Tank’s North Sea Oil and Gas ‘Vested Interests’,” DeSmog, November 7, 2023.
29
Robert Colvile. “I see Rishi has joined Liz in highlighting the scourge of solar panels on our precious farmland. We have 23 million acres of farmland. Even if we quintuple solar output (the govt’s target), it would take up roughly 1/200th of it. Also you can usually still farm on the land!”. Tweet by @rcolvile, August 19, 2022. Archived November 2, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/mg8hs
30
Jon Moulton. “What price the UK net-zero target?”, ICAEW, Archived November 1, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/IkKNX
31
Tom Rees. “Green energy drive puts Britain’s resilience in doubt,” The Telegraph, May 19, 2021. Archived August 15, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/2sI9e
32
Eamonn Ives. “Bridging the Gap: The case for new nuclear investment,” Centre for Policy Studies, June 2020. Archived January 28, 2021. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
33
(Press release). “Bridging the Gap: The case for new nuclear investment,” Centre for Policy Studies, January 21, 2021. Archived April 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.is/S2sD0
34
“Former banker Richard Sharp to be next BBC chairman,” BBC, January 6, 2021. Archived April 30, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.is/wip/AvKzG
35
“CENTRE FOR POLICY STUDIES LIMITED,” Companies House. Archived January 15, 2023. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
36
Eamonn Ives. “Road pricing can level up the nation and take our outdated transport system into the twenty-first century,” City AM, November 19, 2020. Archived December 17, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/9LV8b
37
“Strategic Trade Advisory Group,” Gov.uk. Archived Jan 22, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/p2Vyf
38
Robert Colville. “Memo to XR: Yes, I’m ‘right wing’, but that doesn’t mean I want to wreck the planet,” The Times, September 7, 2020. Archived December 25, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/wzFDb
39
Tony Lodge. “Carbon Border Tax would stop Britain hiding its true carbon emissions,” Centre for Policy Studies, March 13, 2020. Archived July 7, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/GFlRa
40
Mat Hope. “‘Opaque’ and ‘Deceptive’ Think Tanks Spend Millions Pushing Brexit and Climate Science Misinformation – Report,” DeSmog, February 8, 2017.
41
“Think Tanks in the UK 2017: Transparency, Lobbying and Fake News in Brexit Britain,” Transparify, February 8, 2017. Archived December 27, 2023. Archived .pdf on file at DeSmog.
42
Kyla Mandel. “Millennials, Regulations Hamper Trade Deal Success Brexiteer Tells Climate Denying Heritage Foundation,” DeSmog, December 7, 2016.
43
Kyla Mandel. “Mapped: The Cosy Climate-Euro Sceptic Bubble Pushing for Brexit and Less Climate Action,” DeSmog, June 13, 2016.
44
Matt Ridley. “For the cheapest energy, it’s got to be gas,” The Times, August 1, 2016. Archived December 24, 2023. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/rMRYa
45
“Search results: Rupert Darwall,” Centre for Policy Studies. Archived January 22, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/w8UXi
46
“Vote Leave Limited, Cash (C0243561),” Electoral Commission. Archived January 28, 2022. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/p8jQ5
47
Kyla Mandel. “Mapped: The UK’s Brexit Climate Denier Network,” DeSmog, July 15, 2016.
48
Martin Livermore. “Climate Change: a guide to the scientific uncertainties,” Centre for Policy Studies, March 2007. Archived October 25, 2019. Archive URL: https://archive.is/l8WiH
49
George Monbiot. “The Smoke Behind the Deniers’ Fire,” George Monbiot. Archived January 21, 2024. Archive URL: https://archive.ph/wip/ghopL

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