Just Stop Oil protesters have sprayed orange paint over the front of 55 Tufton Street in London, an address that is home to fossil fuel lobby groups and right-wing think tanks.
The protest has reportedly blocked Horseferry Road in Westminster, as activists stopped traffic by sitting in the road and unfurling banners.
Some of the protesters glued themselves to the tarmac, while others locked themselves together.
The group is demanding that the government halt all new oil and gas licences and consents.
The building houses organisations including the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), an organisation that questions the cost of policies attempting to address climate change.
Tuesday’s protest marks the 25th day of concerted action by Just Stop Oil, with the group vowing a month of direct action.
Earlier this month, 55 Tufton Street was the target of the anti-Brexit group Led By Donkeys.
In a new video three of its members are seen climbing a ladder to put up a mock blue plaque “The British economy crashed here” with the date September 23, 2022 – the day former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced his mini-budget, which proposed large tax cuts and heavy borrowing in times of high inflation.
What is 55 Tufton Street?
55 Tufton Street is a four-storey Georgian-era townhouse located in Westminster and owned by businessman Richard Smith.
The building hosts lobby groups and think tanks related to Brexit and climate change.
The address has risen to notoriety due to claims that numerous organisations based there are having an increasing influence on government policy.
In particular, Liz Truss and many of those who championed her are known to have connections to the lobby groups and think tanks based at 55 Tufton Street, which include the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the GWPF, the Adam Smith Institute and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).
A number of people who worked at 55 Tufton Street have been appointed as Downing Street advisers over the years.
Why did Just Stop Oil target 55 Tufton Street?
Tufton Street lobby group the Global Warming Policy Foundation has been criticised for promoting climate change denial.
The GWPF, set up in 2009 by the former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson, has enjoyed a recent revival in its influence in parliament. It has MP Steve Baker as a trustee and has its research promoted by the Net Zero Scrutiny Group of Conservative MPs.
Earlier this year, it was reported to the Charity Commission after the Guardian revealed that it received funding from fossil fuel interests.
Through its American arm, the group received $210,525 in 2018 and 2020 from the Sarah Scaife Foundation – set up by the billionaire libertarian heir to an oil and banking dynasty. The US-based foundation has $30m of shares in 22 energy companies including $9m in Exxon and $5.7m in Chevron, according to its financial filings.
In 2021, the group launched a non-charitable arm, Net Zero Watch, which called for Cop26 to be cancelled.
A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said: “We’re on the streets of London because politics is broken. It was broken here in Tufton Street by shady, opaquely funded lobbyists who now stalk the corridors of power, thanks to Liz Truss. Their bankrupt ideas have brought the economy to its knees but it’s much worse than that.
The Other Black Door, a recent BBC Radio 4 documentary by Jack Fenwick, looked at Tufton Street’s position in the Conservative Party’s Right-wing, tracing its expansion during the austerity era and after Brexit.
Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, was interviewed in the programme and said: “55 Tufton Street shouldn’t have any more influence than any other street in the United Kingdom and what seems to be happening here is that street seems to dominate particular policy and what’s happening in government and legislation and it’s not transparent enough at the moment.”
Why did Led By Donkeys target 55 Tufton Street?
Led by Donkeys blames the think tanks at this address for informing Liz Truss and Kwarteng’s economic ideas.
They pointed out that Truss has appointed a number of senior advisers, including Matthew Sinclair, Alex Wild, Caroline Elsom, Ruth Porter and Julian Jessop from Tufton Street organisations and has reportedly spoken at more IEA events than any other politician in the last 12 years, emphasising just how entwined its influence has become within the Tory hierarchy.
Additionally, it is noted that before the backlash, some of these groups went on social media to brag about the inclusion of the policies their members had supported in Kwarteng's mini-budget. Since then, they have been quieter.
The group labelled the Tufton Street lobbyists as “free market fundamentalists”, who are “hostile to regulations that protect the environment and workers’ rights”, reject corporate social responsibility and “believe the market is God”.
