Ed Miliband’s brother David is being paid by a venture capital outfit that is likely to benefit from his brother’s Net Zero policies, it has emerged. But this conflict of interest has not been publicly declared. David Rose, who did the digging and made the link, has written about his discovery in UnHerd. Here’s an excerpt.
Speaking to Labour Conference last week, Ed Miliband — now the Secretary of State at the Department for Net Zero and Energy Security — pledged to construct an “armoury of clean power” for the United Kingdom, in order to make its electricity system “net zero” by 2030. What he didn’t mention, however, was that his brother is being paid by a venture capital outfit whose profits are likely to increase in the process. …
Just over a decade [after leaving Parliament], David has refashioned himself as a man of virtue: he lives in New York, where he runs International Rescue, a U.S.-based charity that supports people in humanitarian crises. For his services, however, he receives a princely sum. In 2022, he took home a salary of $1,253,728, as well as a bonus of $150,000.
For such a level of remuneration, and with such a workload, one might expect David to be busy with the day job. Yet, for more than four years he has had an additional job: in September 2020, five months after his brother became Shadow Energy Secretary in Sir Keir Starmer’s new shadow cabinet, it was revealed that David had become a paid advisor to Giant Ventures, a London-based venture capital firm that has a particular focus on green technology and energy. Following a series of earlier investments, it recently launched a new “climate focused growth fund” and claims it wants to invest a further $1 billion in “sustainable technologies” by the end of the decade.
All of which may seem perfectly in fitting with David’s form when it comes to juggling multiple jobs. Except for one thing: at least two of the companies Giant Ventures has invested in are likely to prosper as a direct result of decisions made by the new Government. In other words, David now works for a company that stands to profit from climate policies introduced by his brother Ed.
Before and since the election, Ed Miliband has spoken of the need to create a vast energy storage network connected to the national grid — to ensure that, in a renewable energy system, the lights don’t go out when the sun is not shining and there is no wind. Part of this, he has said, will be supplied by arrays of giant batteries. He mentioned them again in his conference speech last week, when he called for the “armoury of clean power”.
Enter Field, a battery power storage firm set up in 2021 by Amit Gudka, one of the co-founders of collapsed energy firm Bulb. Field, with five sites already finished or being built, claims to be ready to meet Miliband’s challenge. And Giant Ventures seems to agree: according to data gathered by finance research experts PitchBook, it invested in Field at its outset in 2021.
Now, it is possible that Ed Miliband was unaware that Field was partly financed by Giant Ventures, although this had already been reported. It is also possible that didn’t know his brother was a member of the Giant Ventures advisory board, though that information was also public.
But that would be puzzling. According to Whitehall’s Ministerial Code, newly appointed ministers must formally declare “all interests that might be thought to give rise to a conflict” with their government post: not only their own, but those of their spouse and “close family members”. They must not only avoid any conflict, but also the “perception” that one might arise. It should have been obvious to Ed Miliband that he had a duty to check his brother’s interests.
This year’s declaration is yet to be published, but both Labour and Conservative former ministers told me that declarations of ministerial interests are usually made immediately after taking office, so that civil servants are aware from the start where conflicts might arise. I asked both the energy department and the Cabinet Office, which is responsible for the list, whether Ed had declared David’s role at Giant Ventures, but both refused to comment. Asked when the next list would be published, all they would say is that this would happen “in due course”.
Worth reading in full.
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He runs International Rescue? FAB
Thunderbirds are go. I bloody well knew I had seen those two in something on tv.
I really don’t think those vehicles or the emerging from a volcano is at all climate friendly
Yes, but those vehicles are not for the likes of us.
Psst… your strings are showing.
I am surprised.
#metoo
Well I never.
It is safe to conclude that the depth of corruption running through Kneel’s government is so deep that a day without such a revelation would be headline making in and of itself.
I’d happily approve a one-off payment of several million pounds each to the whole damn lot of them if they promise to piss off to the Cayman Islands and leave us in peace.
Yes, but what about next year’s payment?
One time offer, no comebacks.
Once they have settled in on the Caymans, say six months, we nuke them.
You could buy a lot of hempen rope for several million quid… much more environmentally friendly.
These two are proper dense say what you like about their dad. Honestly I don’t understand the attraction.
What the article didn’t mention is that giant batteries as backup storage for when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun shine are an absolute bust anyway (just like every other ‘hi-tech’ aspect of the Net Zero agenda);
It would cost £ trillions to provide even a few days worth across the UK, and there are not nearly enough heavy metal and mineral reserves available on the planet for any widescale implementations of this ludicrous concept in any case.
The ‘Green agenda’ isn’t going to happen. England will be the last country to forsake it and not before it has done a lot of damage but it is being disinvested on a worldwide level on every level. Because it is a lie of course and it has been exposed. But when the dust has settled you will as an economy have a hard time of meeting your energy needs because your infrastructure will have been destroyed.
By design… they are following a script
The idea of a “clean energy superpower” is a contradiction in terms. “Clean energy 3rd World Nation” might be a more accurate phrase. Reliance upon renewables can only bring a nation in one direction… towards a weakening of its security against stronger nations that are backed up by their fossil fuel wealth, and the total reliance on those nations for our economic prosperity, including buying oil and gas from them. I.e. outsourcing our extraction of oil and gas and exporting our wealth.
Sort of on topic:
https://www.eugyppius.com/p/how-schleswig-holstein-sold-their
There’s always a money story involved whenever some politician crawls out of the woodwork and starts skipping around a podium, Milliband-style, advocating a supposedly philanthropic cause like Net Zero. The venture-capital firm Giant Ventures and it’s bitches-in-arms the Milliband Brothers will happily reap their fortunes while the global climate laughs in our faces as it continues on it’s merry little way regardless.
There seems to be no limit to the corruption in Westminster! It doesn’t even surprise us any longer.
The Milibands: Prize Marxist Pigs, of the Animal Farm Variety. Snouts in every trough they can find.