At least 30 Reform UK candidates have posted material or made statements that cast doubt on the validity of human-induced global heating, a Guardian analysis can reveal. A suite of the party’s prospective parliamentary candidates have publicly cast doubt on the existence of the emission-caused climate crisis. Their social media posts often claim that warnings of anthropogenic warming are a “hoax” or “scam”, and many include conspiracy theories about how the “climate change narrative” can be attributed to the World Economic Forum, “globalist elites” or “the Illuminati”. Analysis of Reform candidates’ social media profiles for the Guardian has shown that, over he last two years, more than two dozen have shared material that denies human-induced warming. Some of the candidates sharing these messages are projected to win in their constituencies.
Similar views have been expressed and promoted at official Reform events. Party representatives have been criticised for climate science denialism throughout the election campaign; the party’s chair, Richard Tice, claimed in early June that it was “ludicrous” to suggest that the UK’s decarbonisation would reduce global heating. The party’s only MP, Lee Anderson, claimed this year that coal was a “sustainable” energy source and said only “odd weirdos” care about decarbonisation. Reform’s election “contract” – which it released instead of a manifesto – pledges to get rid of the country’s net-zero commitments if the party wins the election. However, the social media activity of many of the party’s candidates’ suggests they go beyond scepticism about the effectiveness of net zero and into overt denial about human-caused climate disruption. They includes three of the five candidates who were projected to win their seats by a YouGov poll published on 19 June. The official Reform UK Basildon & Billericay Facebook account promoting the campaign of Stephen Conlay, tipped to beat Conservative chair, Richard Holden, reposted one message denying that human carbon dioxide emissions affect the climate and another which claimed that global heating would be beneficial. Sean Matthews, polling as the leading candidate in Louth & Horncastle, said on X that “manmade CO2” had “nothing” to do with the climate crisis. Rupert Lowe, the former MEP projected to win in Great Yarmouth, said: “The cult of climate change marches on with no definitive evidence to support or deny the factual accuracy of their assertion.” More than two dozen further candidates have posted material questioning the human-caused climate crisis.
Howard Cox, Reform’s former London mayoral candidate now standing in Dover and Deal, said he was attending the “world premiere” of a film purporting to uncover the “dark forces behind the climate consensus” in a tweet that has since been deleted. The film describes the climate crisis as a “hoax”, “scam” and “agenda”. He urged followers to watch and “take in the truth”. Leslie Lilley, standing in Southend East and Rochford, posted a flow chart on X suggesting that Unesco and environmental groups were under the control of “the Illuminati”. He later shared a video endorsing the same conspiracy theory on Facebook.
Andrea Whitehead, standing in Leeds West and Pudsey, wrote on Facebook that it was “a lie that man is causing climate change … Scientists can be bought to say what the alarmists want”. She also shared a post that said the “climate con” was a “made-up catastrophe used by globalists & socialist to instill [sic] fear and guilt to tax, regulate, and remove our freedoms”. Augustine Obodo, Reform’s candidate for Bicester and Woodcock, posted multiple messages stating that “socialist globalists” were propagating the climate crisis “fraud”. Ken Ferguson, standing in Wirral West, said the climate crisis was “mythological” and that it was “not worrying at all”. Irene Yoong-Henery, the candidate for Birmingham Ladywood, posted a video about the climate crisis in which she argued that it was a “big con”, citing low temperatures in May 2024 as evidence. Dave Holland, standing in Mid Bedfordshire, recorded and shared a video in which he stated that it was “stupid” to suggest that CO2 – which he describes as a “trace element” – could change the climate. “It is not within the gift of mankind to influence it,” he said. “You are, in my opinion, being lied to in order to perpetrate the greatest redistribution of wealth in modern times.” Rowland O’Connor, standing for Reform in North Cornwall, attacked Rishi Sunak for his net-zero policies and stated that anthropogenic global heating was “an outrageous and dangerous lie”. At the party’s 2022 conference, physicist and businessman Brian Catt gave a 15-minute speech about climate change which claimed that “our ignorant politicians have labelled CO2 a dangerous pollutant to justify their energy fraud”.
Catt argued that the risk of having insufficient atmospheric carbon dioxide to support plant life was more threatening to humankind than having high concentrations causing the greenhouse effect. He declared that governments pursue renewable energy for “profit” and “control”, and argued that the impact of anthropogenic greenhouse gases on the environment was “near-indetectable [sic]”. Catt does not have any qualifications in climate science. Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, said the Reform candidates’ public comments demonstrated that denial about the climate crisis was “at the heart of their party”. “This is a scientifically illiterate approach. People across the country are suffering from climate change and these candidates are not suitable to represent them. These are not credible candidates,” he said. He expressed concerns that the prevalence of these views on the political right might reduce the likelihood of effective climate action in the next parliament: “You cannot be a credible candidate if you don’t accept reality. The debate needs to be on effective action – not between people who have hands over their eyes and fingers in their ears.” The Reform party did not respond to requests for comment.