“Your bias is very obvious. You’re playing to the tune your bosses want you to play”
Environmental campaigner Professor Rupert Read exposed a key conflict of interest driving GB News’ anti-net zero agenda, rattling presenter Martin Daubney.
Daubney questioned the Climate Majority Project founder and former Extinction Rebellion spokesperson, asking why the UK has the highest energy bills “in the western world” if the pursuit of the “ideology” of net zero is “so blessed”.
Read said the reasons are “complicated”, but that “the biggest single part of the answer is that energy companies are ripping us off.”
Daubney then quoted Centrica’s CEO Chris O’Shea, who said that net zero policies “will definitely not reduce the price of electricity”.
Read swiftly dismantled Daubney’s choice of source, saying, “Look, Centrica is one of the companies that is ripping you off, obviously they’re not going to tell you the truth.”
He went on to say: “Just like I’m afraid GB News isn’t going to tell you the truth because you’re owned by Paul Marshall, who is a fossil fuel magnate.”
Through his hedge fund, Marshall Wace, owns shares worth £1.8 billion in fossil fuel firms, including Chevron, Shell and Equinor.
The GB News presenter fired back, telling Read to “stop playing the man and play the ball,” adding that “people care about cheap energy” and were told by Ed Miliband their bills would drop by £300 a year.
Read responded: “Your bias is very obvious, you’re playing the tune your boss wants you to play. I come on this channel quite often and every time, you slag off renewable energy and cheerlead for fossil fuels.
“Could that possibly be anything to do with the fact that GB News is owned by a fossil fuel magnate?”.
Daubney denied it, but Read insisted the channel is “massively biased” and “has no integrity”.
When Daubney asked when bills will go down, Read said, “Our bills will go down when the government gets serious about this, this government is not going nearly far enough.”
He said the government needs to put more money into bringing in renewable energy and retrofitting homes.
“Why don’t you ask the government that question, rather than criticising them when they actually do something useful?,” Read added.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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