UK energy policy: 20 people to lobby at Conservative conference

LONDON — The Conservative Party “got trounced in the polls,” ex-Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho admitted earlier this month. After 14 years controlling Westminster’s levers of power, voters dumped the Tories unceremoniously from office overnight in July.

And yet — the party is already regrouping, jumping on energy bills and cost-of-living as one basis for a fight back. As the party dusts itself off, POLITICO has picked the Conservative’s 20 most influential energy and climate policy folk. Here are the people you might see roaming the conference floor in Birmingham, plotting their next move.

The shadow ministers

Claire Coutinho 

Former Energy Secretary, and now Ed Miliband’s counterpart on the shadow benches, Claire Coutinho is currently leading scrutiny of the government’s climate policies. She has been a leading critic of Labour’s plans to decarbonize the electricity grid by 2030, both in government and opposition, branding them “rushed” and claiming Miliband has “no detailed plan.” Once a key ally of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Coutinho is backing former Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch in the leadership race — despite indicating late last year that the pair had fairly different views on green business subsidies. 

Andrew Bowie

Another energy-minister-turned-shadow, Andrew Bowie echoes Coutinho’s criticism of the government’s 2030 goal for clean power. He has been particularly vocal about Labour’s plan to shift away from oil and gas, and ban future licensing in the North Sea. “It’s an utterly dreadful decision,” he said of the government’s decision not to contest legal action against the Rosebank oil field.

Mark Garnier 

Mark Garnier joined the shadow team as shadow energy minister this summer. He brings the policy expertise from his stint as deputy chair of the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee, where he spent time scrutinizing his now-shadow frontbench colleagues. And maybe expect a sudden Conservative interest in, erm, the net zero benefits of generating energy by putting solar panels in space — a particular fascination of Garnier’s, who is a non-executive director on the board of the imaginatively named space solar company Space Solar.

Alicia Kearns

Tory MP Alicia Kearns joined the shadow foreign commonwealth and development team after 18 years chairing the highly influential Foreign Affairs Select Committee. In that role, and across parliamentary debates, Kearns established herself as a leading China hawk with an eye on net zero imports. The U.K. must not allow itself to become a “dumping ground for inhumane Chinese-made solar,” she told POLITICO last year. And she was quick out the blocks criticizing Miliband this summer when he green lit a new solar farm in her Lincolnshire constituency. Kearns was not finished “fighting against slave labor in supply chains,” she said.

The politicians

Zac Goldsmith 

Former Environment Minister Zac Goldsmith stepped down as a minister last year, firing a broadside at then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on his way out, whom he accused of showing “apathy in the face of the greatest challenge we have faced.” Goldsmith has called for nature to be “front and center” of the U.K.’s approach to U.N. COP climate summits, and had warm words for Labour Foreign Secretary David Lammy after Lammy pledged a fresh approach to global climate leadership.

Rebecca Pow

Is Rebecca Pow now the Conservatives’ green conscience? After the election, it was hard to see who would take up the baton of nature and climate leadership in the party. But former junior Environment & Rural Affairs Minister Pow is staking an early claim, calling on all leadership contenders to “recommit to the environment” and slamming her party for not talking up their climate record at the election. She’s also campaigning against the government’s reported plans to cut £100 million from the nature-friendly farming budget.

Graham Stuart

“We have heard quite enough from him.” So Ed Miliband tried to swat away Graham Stuart during the Great British Energy Bill debate in the Commons. But the pugnacious former climate minister is not going quietly. A cheerleader for the Conservatives’ record on climate, who nonetheless thinks Labour’s focus on curtailing North Sea oil and gas production is wrong-headed, Stuart is a fiery opponent with years of government experience. Or to put it another way — he knows where the bodies are buried.

Nick Timothy

Theresa May’s one-time right-hand man, whose word was once law in Whitehall, Timothy’s first experience of elected office comes in opposition. But he’ll fancy himself as a key player in the Tory rebuild. And ironically for someone whose old boss legislated for net zero, he now says (in an interview with POLITICO earlier this year) that he’s “cautious” about the decarbonization target. “I think we are not honest with ourselves as a country about the true cost of a lot of renewables,” he warned.

Aphra Brandreth

Yes, she is Gyles’ daughter. But while her maiden speech suggested she’s inherited her dad’s gift for oratory, Brandreth Jnr. is looking to blaze her own trail in parliament. A former adviser at the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, expect her to champion farmers and lay into the “urban” Labour government for — as she put it in that maiden speech — failing to understand the countryside. Oh, and she is a champion of nuclear energy investment.

John Gummer

The former Thatcher-era minister and Climate Change Committee chair became a serial critic of his old party under Rishi Sunak, exasperated at No. 10’s apparent indifference to climate diplomacy and its determination to turn net zero into a wedge issue. What role might the veteran climate advocate play now? It depends on who the Tories pick as leader — and the direction they take on net zero. If they revive Tory enthusiasm for the agenda, they’ll have a vocal and respected champion in the House of Lords. If they follow the Sunak route, Gummer will probably cause them the same amount of trouble.

Iain Duncan Smith

The former Conservative leader is one of the most outspoken voices against China’s role in U.K. supply chains. He co-chairs the influential Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and has railed against the country’s influence over the U.K.’s net zero push. This includes taking aim at China’s dominant position in mineral extraction and processing, solar panel manufacturing, and wind turbine technology. Expect to hear more from the so-called Quiet Man as Labour ramps up the rollout of renewables this parliament. 

David Frost

Once Boris Johnson’s point man on Brexit, Frost now delivers his stern sermons from the pages of the Daily Telegraph, where he finds plenty of copy in railing against all things net zero. This includes blasting “windmills” and “medieval” renewable technology — while playing down any suggestion of a climate crisis. As a trustee of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, which opposes many environmental policies and is funded by Tory donors, he will bring his arch net zero-skepticism to influencing MPs and the wider Conservative party as they select a new leader. 

The ex-PMs

Boris Johnson

The ex-Prime Minister is a self-professed greenie who unveiled a highly ambitious net zero strategy, which aimed at ramping up offshore wind, solar, hydrogen and nuclear energy generation. These commitments were honored by Sunak and laid the blueprint for Labour’s own approach to clean power. Johnson was prepared to raise concerns publicly when Sunak rowed back on electric vehicle targets and heat pump mandates, and Johnson will be watching keenly to ensure no further softening on the Tories’ climate approach. 

Theresa May

In the final weeks of her doomed premiership, May approved the passing of the 2050 net zero target into law, making the U.K. the first G7 country to sign up to the now commonplace climate ambition. She also oversaw the decision to end unabated coal-fired electricity generation by 2025, with the final power plant set to close this month. She may have left the House of Commons but May is now a peer, and remains chair of the well-connected Aldersgate Group, which advocates a green economy.  Expect her to deliver her trademark short shrift from the red benches if there are any attempts to water down net zero.

The influencers

Sam Hall

It has been quite a rollercoaster ride for the Conservative Environment Network. Mere months ago, they were the toast of Westminster and the best-connected caucus in parliament, yet now they are a cause without a champion — a flock in need of a keen shepherd. But there are few green lobbyists cannier than CEN Director Sam Hall, who will use his connections to ensure his pressure group keeps its relevance as the Tories organize themselves into a credible opposition.  

Jack Richardson

What better in wonk world than a think tank supremo, a senior DESNZ civil servant and a private sector clean energy expert — wrapped up in a single person? Richardson was point man for all things net zero at the soft-right think tank Onward, then a Whitehall official advising Claire Coutinho in government, and has now emerged as head of policy at the minister-photoshoot-friendly green corporate giant Octopus Energy. POLITICO can only marvel at Richardson’s book of energy contacts inside and outside government.

Chris Skidmore

Chris Skidmore may be the former Conservative energy minister who signed net zero targets into law — but it is also reasonable to ask whether he is, in any practical sense, still a Tory. Nonetheless, Skidmore retains serious clout in net zero policy and as an influential voice among politicians who want to take on climate ambitions from the right. And he has a platform from which to do so, in the form of his new green investment bank Desmos Capital and consultancy Better Earth.

The think tankers

Ryan Shorthouse

Conservative Party conference 2024 is not going to resemble the 2005 version, when a youthful David Cameron wowed the members and swept in as leader. But some influence from that era still remains, including through Ryan Shorthouse, who formed the Bright Blue think tank towards the end of the coalition years to lobby the Tory government on centrist ideas like conservation and net zero. Now the executive chair of Bright Blue, Shorthouse’s ideas are likely to be found at plenty of fringe events.

Rachel Wolf

Tory influencers don’t come much better credentialed than Rachel Wolf. These days a big voice at Public First, the consultancy she founded in 2016, Wolf has used her clout to argue against Tories backsliding on net zero policies. And when lobbying on this stuff, she knows how to navigate the corridors of right-of-center power: Wolf was a Michael Gove adviser, a Number 10 aide, and co-author of the 2019, Boris Johnson-landslide winning manifesto.

Sebastian Payne

Having jumped from journalism to think tank leadership in December 2022, taking over at Onward, Payne oversaw the release of a series of net zero papers which influenced Conservative government thinking on the politics, costs and logistics of greening the U.K. economy. He was also a reliable outrider for some aspects of energy policy under Rishi Sunak, defending No. 10’s loosening of net zero policy last September. “Since 2010, Conservative-led governments have been the greenest administrations ever,” Payne wrote.