Yesterday the Mail on Sunday sensationally revealed that ‘green’ businesses have funnelled more than £600,000 into Sancroft International, the private company of Climate Change Committee chair and Conservative peer John Selwyn Gummer, now Lord Deben. His powerful committee consistently argues that billions of pounds of taxpayers’ money should be handed out to big green businesses to help them develop green tech. It just so happens some of that money found its way back to him…

• Windfarm and solar investor Temporis Capital paid Gummer’s company £50,000 in the last five years.
• Electric car battery producer Johnson Matthey handed Gummer’s firm nearly £300,000 over five years, after which he personally urged the Government to speed up plans to make all new cars on Britain’s roads battery-powered;
• Energy producer Drax, which gets £700 million a year in Government subsidies, paid Sancroft £15,500 while the Climate Change Committee was writing a report on its activities.

Gummer has never declared these payments made to his company, but insists that he has been fully compliant with disclosure rules.

Despite the scale of the scandal, numerous news organisations including the BBC have entirely failed to cover it so far. Guido hears that the usual cabal of eco-journalists at are steering clear of this story for fear of consequences from the well-connected Gummer….