Interference

Badenoch’s donor-funded jaunt...

Neil Record appearing on GB News last year.

Westminster will today bury itself in Philip Rycroft’s review into foreign financial interference in UK politics.

I will be reading the report closely (which is reportedly set to recommend that crypto donations are banned… poor Nigel) as I continue to prepare my own dossier documenting the foreign influences surrounding Farage.

However, amid all this talk of overseas oligarchs attempting to trample our democracy, we mustn’t lose sight of homegrown efforts to sway British politics.

On the domestic front, I’m going to tell you about a chap who doesn’t receive a great deal of coverage, but who has considerable influence on the right.

His name is Neil Record.

Predictably, he’s extremely wealthy, having made his money in currency trading.

He also has an extensive political CV, and is a key player in a cluster of organisations that are trying to browbeat Britain into adopting radical right-wing politics.

He’s the chair of Net Zero Watch, a campaign group which denies climate science and wants to roll back the UK’s clean energy policies (because our reliance on fossil fuels is going so well at the minute!)

He’s the former chair and current life vice-president of the Institute of Economic Affairs – the anti-tax, anti-regulation pressure group that “incubated” Liz Truss and received heaps of cash from oil majors and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

He’s on the advisory board of the Prosperity Institute, the pro-Brexit, anti-immigration front created by the Legatum Group investment firm – one of the co-owners of GB News.

He’s a former director of the Restore Trust – the Legatum-linked campaign group that has waged war on the National Trust for supposedly being too “woke”.

And he’s a columnist at The Telegraph, which has been leading the charge in pushing for pro-oil, pro-Trump, anti-immigration politics in the UK.

Record has quite the résumé, which also includes being a major donor to the Conservatives, having given over £550,000 to the party.

And his influence over the party has peaked during the leadership of Kemi Badenoch.

As I revealed yesterday with DeSmog and The New World, Badenoch took a £7,500 week-long jaunt to Record’s home in February along with four of her family members.

Help me to follow the money…

This appears to be an annual trip. Badenoch and a roster of shadow cabinet members made the trip last February, where they hung out at Record’s Gloucestershire estate, which boasts a swimming pool, donkeys, and 180 acres of sheep-grazed grass.

Why does Record have such a hold on the current Tory hierarchy? Well, it may have something to do with his contributions to Badenoch’s 2024 party leadership campaign. Not only did Record provide funding for that campaign, he also allowed Badenoch to use his London home as a HQ.

In other words, this major political donor has significant access to – and potentially influence over – the Conservative leadership, yet few people would even recognise his name.

Coincidentally, Badenoch’s Tory party has scrapped its commitment to major clean energy policies and fervently supports more fossil fuel extraction – all while being supported by a man closely connected to several anti-climate groups.

You may legitimately argue that the Tories are politically irrelevant, so Record has little sway over British politics – but that’s a moot point.

Record has influence over a swathe of powerful right-wing groups that are attempting to redraw our political consensus and normalise nasty politics.

This one case study is also indicative of our rotten political finance system, whereby the super rich – foreign or homegrown – can buy vast influence with relatively little money.

That’s why the Labour government shouldn’t just focus on stopping the most egregious forms of foreign interference, but should kibosh all the ways in which corporate predators can sway politicians through their financial clout.

Ultimately, all big donations have a corrupting effect on politics, regardless of their origin. And ending the influence of big money is the only way to start cleaning up British democracy.

About me

I investigate the rich and powerful – namely, how they are trying to impose their narrow-minded mindset on the UK: demonising immigrants, fawning over Trump, and paving the way for a second era of austerity.