“Climate change is happening,” said Herbert Crossman, a pensioner from Harrow. “I don’t think we need to bring the country to its knees to stop it, though.”
Twelve thousand people are supposed to be attending Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham over three days this week (according to Reform at least), and Crossman is one of them. Their leader, Nigel Farage, has said it is “ridiculous” to refer to carbon dioxide as a pollutant and added: “I can’t tell you whether CO2 is leading to warming or not”. The party deputy, Richard Tice, has said it is “absolute garbage” to claim that human activity is the main cause of the climate crisis.
But what does the rest of the party membership think? Do they share these views?
Crossman appears to have a more nuanced position, saying that we should, ideally, burn fewer fossil fuels: “Well, yes, we should, but the thing is, it is all kind of relative. The fact is, we can do what we like, but we’re such a small part in the puzzle. If China don’t start to do something about it, then it’s a moot point.”
He believes we should be building more nuclear energy, adding, “Rolls-Royce is making a new type of reactor.”
A few metres down the corridor, Danny Skryme, 64, a landlord and Reform member, tells the Guardian: “I live near Hinkley Point [nuclear power station] and we should be building a damn sight more of that; it doesn’t seem Ed Miliband is building it at all. I don’t think we should stop burning oil and gas, this is for economic reasons. We are all seeing bills go up, and why should we be reaching no carbon in the UK if all it means is more expensive bills?”
One thing everyone agrees on at Reform UK’s party conference in Birmingham is that high energy bills are Ed Miliband’s fault. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Reuters
The Reform leadership also wants to end the moratorium on fracking that was put in place in 2019 due to earthquakes causing issues for people across England. The moratorium was briefly lifted by Liz Truss during her short-lived premiership in 2022 but reinstated by her successor, Rishi Sunak.
But not all Reform members agree that fracking is the answer to the UK’s energy woes. Charlie, 37, from Leeds, told the Guardian: “I don’t agree that we should be fracking the UK, and the reason for that is the geology in the UK. In America, they have very different geology … So in America, fair enough, you’ve got a relatively large area where people don’t live, so if you cause an earthquake, maybe it’s not a big deal, but in the UK it is.”
There have been tensions between the Reform leadership and some county council representatives who are, presumably, hearing directly from the public. Simon Evans, deputy leader of Lancashire county council, said conditions on the Fylde coast were “not conducive to fracking, and there are no plans for it to take place here”.
Andrea Jenkyns performs self-written song Insomniac at Reform UK conference – video
But Tice believes that shale gas is the “energy treasure under our feet”.
The one thing on which everyone seems to agree is that energy bills are too high, and that this is all down to Labour’s energy secretary, Ed Miliband (which seems harsh, as bills were high long before he took his post).
Dr David Bull, the party chair, drew titters and cheers from the audience when he referred to the “mad swivel-eyed Ed Miliband” and claimed net zero could cost £3tn (this figure is being used incorrectly; the number refers to the total cost of building and maintaining the UK’s energy system over three decades, regardless of whether or not it is a net zero system).
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Of Miliband, Bull said: “Even though we only emit 1% of global emissions, he is going to rip up our countryside, destroying it with pylons, with substations and windmills, all against the wishes of local communities.”
Crossman told the Guardian: “Miliband is out of control. He is destroying the country. We are in crisis mode with high energy costs and nobody seems to be in control that really understands and really knows what to do.”
Reform’s deputy Richard Tice has said it is ‘absolute garbage’ to claim that human activity is the main cause of the climate crisis. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images
During a panel on energy, Maurice Cousins, campaign director at the climate sceptic organisation Net Zero Watch, claimed Miliband-linked thinktanks were trying to reduce cattle numbers in the UK, adding that the price of meat had risen due to climate policies. This appears to be untrue; beef prices, for example, are spiking partly due to drought, which has been exacerbated by the climate crisis.
Cousins said the country needed a “resistance against what Ed Miliband and this government is doing to rush to go further and faster on net zero”.
Drilling seemed popular, too: in fact, Reform’s energy policy seems to largely comprise drilling for as much gas as possible, whether it is under the ground in Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire, or in the North Sea, a strategy emphasised by the Lincolnshire mayor, Andrea Jenkyns, who strode on to stage clad in a glittering jumpsuit and promised to “drill baby, drill”.
There is a certain nihilistic sense that in fact, it’s pointless trying to mitigate against the climate crisis in any way, as if humans are helpless in its face, despite being responsible for it. As Radomir Tylecote, a former special adviser for Jacob Rees-Mogg, said at a panel later: “Our left-leaning, permanent bureaucratic class, seems to have decided that through taxes with these reassuring acronym names they can somehow adjust the global climate like a thermostat.” In other words: drill, baby, drill.
