Thinktank that briefed against XR given £30k by ExxonMobil in 2017

theguardian.com:

A thinktank that received money from an oil company later published a report that advised the government to criminalise Extinction Rebellion in its tough new crime laws.

Several Conservative MPs and peers cited the 2019 report by Policy Exchange in parliament and the home secretary, Priti Patel, repeated its claims about the climate campaigners being “extremists”.

Many of the report’s recommendations, including “to strengthen the ability of police to place restrictions on planned protest and deal more effectively with mass law-breaking tactics”, later appeared in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.

A new investigation by the news website openDemocracy reveals that in 2017, the thinktank received $30,000 (£25,000) from US oil company ExxonMobil.

Policy Exchange and Exxon declined to comment.

There is no suggestion the money provided by the oil company funded the report.

However, Caroline Lucas, Green MP for Brighton, claimed the policing bill appeared to have been “stained with the grubby, oil-soaked hands of the fossil fuel lobby”.

“This proposed government legislation would crack down on the fundamental rights of protesters to challenge the very climate-wrecking policies espoused by this downright dangerous industry.”

She said that “if [the government’s] long-trumpeted ‘climate leadership’ is to have a shred of credibility, it needs to come clean on its fossil fuel lobby ties immediately”.

OpenDemocracy found that ExxonMobil donated the money to the US fundraising wing of Policy Exchange in 2017. The American Friends of Policy Exchange is a US non-profit set up in 2010 “to support and advance the program of Policy Exchange UK”, and has received almost $5m in anonymous donations since 2012, according to publicly