Revealed: How Big Oil Is Pushing Labour to Drill the North Sea
A Democracy for Sale investigation reveals that Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), representing BP, Shell and other majors, has lobbied Labour officials intensively to overturn the ban on new North Sea drilling and to scrap the energy‑profits windfall tax. The group met UK and Scottish ministers 96 times since July 2024 and runs the All‑Party Parliamentary Group for the British Offshore Energy Industry, shaping parliamentary language. BP’s Louise Kingham and a Shell executive have directly urged Ed Miliband for new exploration licences, while the windfall tax has been extended to 2030. Labour’s energy secretary faces mounting pressure despite evidence that extra drilling would barely affect domestic gas prices.
BREAKING: We're Taking the Government to Court over Palantir
Democracy for Sale has filed an appeal with the Information Tribunal, backed by the Good Law Project and Landmark Chambers, to obtain ministerial briefings on Palantir’s roughly £330 million (about $425 million) NHS contract. The Department for Health and Social Care denied...
The £100,000 Fix for Britain's Big Money Problem
In March, Prime Minister Keir Starmer introduced a £100,000 (≈$128,000) cap on political donations from Britons living abroad, targeting foreign‑funded influence. Two weeks later, crypto billionaire Ben Delo announced a £4 million (≈$5.1 million) contribution to Reform UK and plans to relocate...
The Oxford Energy Institute with a Kremlin Problem
The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), a widely‑cited UK think tank, has come under fire after a Kyiv‑based NGO revealed that senior staff retain close ties to Russia’s gas sector. Senior fellow Tatiana Mitrova joined the board of sanctioned...
"GB News Is Essentially Reform TV"
GB News, launched in 2021, operates as a de facto mouthpiece for the UK Reform Party, with funding from billionaire owners who have lost over £100 million (≈$127 million) on the venture. The channel pays Nigel Farage £585,000 (≈$743 000), a sum critics...
Has Labour Just Accepted the Case for a Political Donations Cap?
Housing Secretary Steve Reed announced a moratorium on cryptocurrency political donations and a £100,000 (≈ $127,000) annual cap for Britons living abroad. The move follows the Rycroft review, which warned of foreign‑linked dark money and called for stricter donor checks. Britain...
Farage's Fossil Fuel Donors Profit From Iran War
The Iran‑Israel‑U.S. conflict has created a sharp "war premium" that is boosting fossil‑fuel equities. Jeremy Hosking’s hedge fund, which manages roughly $3 billion, saw its oil, gas and coal holdings rise by more than $25 million since the war began. Hosking has...
Government Spent over £1m on Court Cases to Keep Information Secret
A recent investigation reveals that UK government departments spent over £1 million on legal fees to contest Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in 2024‑25. The Cabinet Office topped the list with £318,000, while the Department of Health and Social Care and...
It’s Elon Musk’s World - but We Don’t Have to Live in It
Elon Musk’s escalating presence on X, now averaging 60 daily posts, has coincided with a pronounced shift toward far‑right politics, a trend explored in the new book *Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed*. Authors Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff argue...