Surprise! Consultant Pushing Anti-BBC Bullshit Also Sells Climate Lies: Worked For Johnson, Brexit

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A well-connected public relations specialist who runs an anti-BBC pressure group and campaigned for a “hard” Brexit is working with climate science denial groups to oppose the UK’s net zero target, DeSmog can report. The finding sheds new light on a network of PR agencies, right-wing politicians and think-tanks working to drum up opposition to climate policies as part of a broader drive to cut regulation and boost production of fossil fuels.

Rebecca Ryan, managing director of Blue Sky Strategy, runs the “Defund the BBC” campaign, which wants to see the licence fee scrapped and deep cuts in the corporation’s budget. The campaign, launched in 2020, has accused the public broadcaster of bias, including in its climate coverage. Ryan has ties to senior politicians, having run a campaign for a “hard” Brexit backed by 60 MPs including Boris Johnson and former Brexit Minister Steve Baker, who is leading efforts to scrap climate policies.

Last month, Ryan was listed as the media contact for a survey commissioned by Net Zero Watch (NZW) that suggested strong public support for an end to the UK’s ban on fracking. NZW is the political arm of the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s most prominent climate science denial group, which published a paper last month claiming there is “no evidence of a climate crisis”. In October, CAR26, a new group whose director has said the climate crisis is a “con” designed by “elites” to make people poor and hungry, said in a note on its website that Blue Sky was “powering” the site. The reference was later removed from the website but is still visible via an archived link of the page.

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Ryan has links in parliament, having founded the pressure group StandUp4Brexit in 2018, which was backed by 60 MPs including the now Prime Minister Boris Johnson and four of his cabinet ministers – Priti Patel, Nadine Dorries, Jacob Rees-Mogg and Suella Braverman. The group was praised as “heroic” by former Brexit Minister Steve Baker, a trustee of the GWPF who is currently leading the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) of MPs and peers opposing the UK’s net zero targets. In March, the group’s chair, fellow Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay, endorsed a Net Zero Watch report that called for the “rapid” extraction of oil and gas, the return of fracking for shale gas, keeping coal-fired power stations open, and for renewable energy from wind and solar power to be “wound down completely”.

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https://www.desmog.com/2022/05/26/revealed-the-anti-bbc-pr-firm-behind-the-uks-net-zero-backlash/