CLIMATE change denial is common in the Brexit Party, according to new analysis.
Research by investigate media outlet DeSmog found the majority of those standing in Nigel Farage's party appear to reject mainstream science on the issue, as do some MEPs.
While a handful of Brexit Party candidates and politicians have made calls for action to limit emissions, most have made no previous statements on what Parliament declared was an “emergency” earlier this year.
The party’s policy platform, which excludes any mention of climate change, contains just two environmental commitments – to “plant tens of millions of trees” and to recycle waste in the UK rather than abroad.
The Brexit Party refused to comment on DeSmog’s findings but one candidate said he would only be happy to “provide a full view” on climate change “once elected”.
READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon: Scotland’s future at risk of being decided by Nigel Farage
The party recently appeared to accept the threat of climate change and advocate low-carbon measures in a mailout to supporters. The party quickly backtracked, however, saying the statement had merely been a “suggested draft from a keen young staffer”.
Ann Widdecombe
The former Tory MP and now Brexit Party MEP for South West England has a long history of rejecting the scientific consensus on climate change.
Having been one of only five MPs to vote against the UK’s landmark Climate Change Act in 2008, Widdecombe has written that the “science of climate change is robustly disputed”.
In a 2014 column for the Daily Express, she described a book by Lord Nigel Lawson which downplays the risks of climate change as the “best refutation of the doom mongers” and compared its difficulty in getting published to book-burning in Nazi Germany.
Martin Daubney
Elected as an MEP for the Brexit Party in May, the former editor of lads’ mag Loaded has made numerous comments denying climate change is caused by humans.
Daubney has said it “cannot be proven” and that “we can't say for sure man is responsible”.
@Mikell_Pine Evolution we can prove. Unless you're blinded by faith. Climate change cannot be proven. Unless you're blinded by faith?
— Martin Daubney MEP ➡️ (@MartinDaubney) December 7, 2015
He has also praised the work of long-time climate science denier James Delingpole, describing one of his articles that claimed climate change had caused “zero” deaths in 2014 “superb.”
Since being elected to the European Parliament, Daubney has said the issue is treated “like a religion” in Brussels and praised commuters who dragged Extinction Rebellion activists off a London Underground train in October, calling for tasers to be used against them.
READ MORE: Nigel Farage facing Brexit Party backlash over Tory election pact
Nathan Gill
Former Wales UKIP leader and MEP, Gill defected to the Brexit Party last year and has said it is “ridiculous” to think humans could have an effect on the climate.
In 2015, he said climate change was being exploited by governments who have “realised this is a great way of taxing people”.
Last year, Gill said in a statement that he would vote against the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive.
“The European Commission continues to impose never-ending objectives for emissions reductions. EU policies oblige us to invest vast amounts of money on initiatives that will have little or no effect on climate change,” he wrote.
Tony Willicombe
The Swansea East candidate shared an article recently arguing that carbon dioxide cannot cause global warming.
Chemistry Expert: Carbon Dioxide can't cause Global Warming https://t.co/bK4Y2S9czr via @john0sullivanp2
— Tony Willicombe - TBP PPC Swansea East (@TonyWillicombe) October 9, 2019
Julie Maughan
The Easington candidate has called climate change a “pattern of the earths and the suns cycle".
Jules Morgan
He called climate change a “massive lie” in a now-deleted tweet
Roger Carter
Carter, who will stand in Oxford East, has claimed “changing levels of cloud fully explain ‘global warming’”.
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