11 June 2013

Why is the right silent over Peter Lilley’s links to the oil industry?

The Tory MP the right wants to replace Tim Yeo as chair of the energy and climate change committee has been paid £70,500 by oil company Tethys Petroleum since 2012.

By George Eaton

After being caught allegedly offering to advise energy companies for cash, Conservative MP Tim Yeo has bowed to the inevitable and stepped down as chair of the energy and climate change committee. It’s true, as Fraser Nelson argues, that his appointment was wrong to begin with. Yeo is a paid director of three renewable energy companies – AFC Energy, Eco City Vehicles and TMO Renewables – and has earned more than £400,000 from the sector since 2009. If that isn’t a conflict of interest, then nothing is.

But if Yeo isn’t fit to lead the committee then neither is the man the right wants to replace him: Tory MP Peter Lilley. After criticising Yeo’s business interests, Nelson wrote: “It’s not yet clear who’ll replace him but Peter Lilley, who is more of a climate realist, is the likely candidate. And a recent Spectator cover boy“, while Guido Fawkes tweeted: “I for one welcome Peter Lilley as our new Energy and Climate Change Select Committee Chairman. Thanks to Labour for getting rid of Yeo.”

In the event, it was Lib Dem Robert Smith, rather than Lilley, who took the chair when the committee met this morning. As Guido points out, Smith his own interests, with r egistrable shareholdings in Shell and Rio Tinto. But they pale in comparison to those of Lilley. The former Tory social security secretary (“I have a little list“) is a paid director of Cayman Islands-based oil and gas company Tethys Petroleum and has received £70,500 since January 2012 for 180 hours’ work “attending meetings and advising on business developments”. He has also received share options worth at least $400,000. Again, if that’s not a conflict of interest, nothing is.

But, strangely, none of Lilley’s supporters thought it fit to mention any of this. One possible explanation is that Lilley, unlike the green Yeo, is a self-described “global lukewarmist” and one of just three MPs who voted against the Climate Change Act in 2008. Where parliamentary ethics are concerned, it seems it’s one standard for a friend and another for a foe.