MPs call for investigation into misuse of funds by a 55 Tufton Street charity

Lawyers have uncovered conduct by a 55 Tufton Street charity which appears to breach charity law. A cross-party group of MPs has written to ask the Charity Commission why it is allowing Tufton Street dark money to pretend to be for the public good – and claim top ups from the public purse.

Good Law Project supports a cross-party group of MPs including Caroline Lucas, Layla Moran and Clive Lewis in urging the Charity Commission to investigate potential wrongdoing by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

Part of the Tufton Street group, GWPF has been criticised multiple times over the years for its reliance on anonymous donors, while recent reports have revealed financial links between the charity’s funders and the fossil fuel industry.

The letter – based on investigation and analysis by specialist charity lawyers – highlights conduct on the part of GWPF’s trustees which could amount to mismanagement and breaches of duty.

This includes several hundred thousand pounds’ worth of spending on one-sided research and a financial relationship between GWPF and its non-charitable subsidiary Net Zero Watch (NZW) which appears to breach key protections of charity law.

GWPF was launched in 2009 by former Conservative Chancellor Lord Nigel Lawson, who, in an article last year, called global warming a ‘nonexistent problem’, and questioned whether the climate crisis is ‘quasi-religious hysteria, based on ignorance’. GWPF has been described by the London School of Economics as ‘the UK’s main club for climate change deniers’.

Individuals connected to the group are reported to have given sizable donations to candidates in this summer’s Conservative leadership race, while reports show a GWPF funder and a former trustee and director could be set to receive peerages.

GWPF was previously investigated by the Commission in 2014, which concluded that its activities as a registered educational charity promoted a particular position on global warming which “would not equate to education”.

A new, non-charitable organisation – Global Warming Policy Forum, renamed Net Zero Watch (NZW) in 2021 – was formed in September 2014 to act as a campaigning organisation so GWPF could focus on its charitable objectives.

There are often arrangements where Charity X pursues its charitable objects by funding the work of Non-charity Y – sometimes X and Y are related, sometimes they are not. The difference here is that GWPF (Charity X) appears to be funding activities of NZW (Non-charity Y) which are not furthering any charitable aim. This opaque use of tax breaks is of grave concern.

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You can read the letter from Caroline Lucas MP, Layla Moran MP and Clive Lewis MP here.

GOING FURTHER:

— AUTHORS —

▫ Good Law Project, a not-for-profit campaign organisation that uses the law to protect the interests of the public.     ⚖️ GoodLawProjectonly exists thanks to donations from people across the UK. If you’re ina position to support their work, you can do so here.

Sources

• Text: This piece was originally published in GoodLawProject and re-published in PMP Magazine on 30 October 2022, with the authors’ consent. | The authors write in a personal capacity.
• Cover: Geograph.org.uk/© Copyright Basher Eyre. - Tufton Street, London. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)