Subscriptions
Read our Monthly Magazine
And support our mission to provide fearless stories about and outside the media system
Hedge-funder and GB News boss Paul Marshall, whose firm holds billions in investments in fossil fuels, donated £890,000 to the right-wing Policy Exchange think tank through a charitable trust under his control, Byline Times can reveal.
Between 2020 and 2023, Marshall gifted the hefty sum to the group, which is funded by fossil fuel companies and played a key role in drafting legislation introduced by the Conservatives to crack down on climate protestors, through the Sequoia Trust.
Climate news outlet, DeSmog revealed in October 2023 that Marshall, through his hedge fund, Marshall Wace, owns shares worth £1.8 billion in fossil fuel firms, including Chevron, Shell, Equinor, and 109 other companies.
The latest revelations about Marshall’s donations come amid reports that he is about to be announced as the new owner of the “bible” of the Conservative Party, The Spectator.
Marshall’s Sequoia Trust describes itself as helping “children/young people”, “other charities or voluntary bodies” and the “general public/mankind”, and makes grants and donations throughout England and Wales.
Its charity page describes how it “will donate funds for the benefit of a range of charitable purposes as the trustees see fit”. The trustees include Marshall, who is chair, as well as his wife and son.
The Sequoia Trust has also provided funding for the ‘Alliance for Responsible Citizenship’ – an organisation launched by controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson – to the tune of a million pounds in 2023 alone.
It is aimed at uniting right-wing voices, describing itself as a response to a “civilisational” moment where the Western world “is plagued by self-doubt and confusion”.
The group has ties to Legatum, the Dubai-based investment firm which co-owns GB News along with Marshall.
Marshall and two other directors of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship – Alan McCormick and Mark Stoleson – are also directors of GB News’ parent company, AllPerspectives Ltd, which is part owned by the Legatum Group.
Jordan Peterson’s ‘Alliance’ hosts a number of speakers infamous for downplaying and ignoring climate change. In a recent speech for the group, Marshall hit out at “elite failure” supposedly “mutating” free-market capitalism.
Climate ‘Sceptical’ Lobbying
Marshall’s funding for Policy Exchange might raise a few eyebrows, given his extensive fossil fuel investments.
In 2023, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admitted that a brief by Policy Exchange “helped us draft” the Government’s crackdown on protests, measures which took effect through the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts (PCSC) Act, and later under Suella Braverman through changes to the Public Order Act.
The Act targeted at climate change activists, and actions commonly taken by them, such as locking onto objects and slow marching, with campaigners, lawyers, and peers criticising it’s restrictions, dubbing it an “attempt to overthrow democracy”, “draconian”, and “like something out of a dystopian novel”.
Labour has been urged to cut ties with the Conservatives’ anti-protest legislation, but have so far failed to do so, and recently five Just Stop Oil (JSO) supporters were handed unprecedented four and five years sentences under Section 78 of the PCSCA.
Labour has also been pressured by protesters to cut ties with oil-funded think tanks like Policy Exchange, and the groups operating out of Tufton St, with campaigners arguing that they are responsible for fuelling climate denial, racism, and transphobia in public life.
Policy Exchange has previously published reports stating that the Government should target groups like Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Just Stop Oil.
In a 2022 release, it stated, in reference to JSO, that it is “imperative” that “protestors who repeatedly obstruct the highways and/or damage property are swiftly arrested, convicted and punished”, and in another, dubbed XR “extremist”. A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion told Byline Times that the portrayal of them as “a potential terrorist threat” was “cynical and laughable”.
