Many MPs who complained about BBC's coverage of Brexit are 'hardline Euro-climate sceptics'

Many of the MPs who complained that the BBC’s coverage of Brexit was biased are part of a group of “hardline Euro-climate sceptics”, according to a report.

In the letter, signed by more than 70 MPs, the corporation was accused of “pre-referendum pessimism” and a failure to “accept new facts”.

It also claimed that the BBC had suffered a “collective nervous breakdown” following the vote in favour of leaving the European Union.

An analysis of the signatories’ voting records by DeSmog UK, which aims to “clear the PR pollution” around climate science, found that six of the MPs had consistently sought to prevent measures designed to tackle global warming in parliament.

Another 12 were associated with the 55 Tufton Street “climate denier network”, DeSmog said.

As reported last year by The Independent, that address is home to eight right-of-centre organisations, including Lord Lawson’s climate-sceptical Global Warming Policy Foundation, the TaxPayers’ Alliance, and was previously home to the Vote Leave campaign.

Of the 18 MPs who signed the letter attacking the BBC, 10 had signed another letter published last year in which they called for the UK to do less to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

“Within this group of hardline Euro-climate sceptics are also Conservative MPs, David Nuttall, Andrew Bridgen, David Davies, Richard Drax, John Redwood and Sammy Wilson – these men have voted consistently against measures to prevent climate change and have previously rallied against the BBC’s coverage of the topic,” DeSmog said.

While former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who studied chemistry, was among the first world leaders to become concerned about global warming, climate science scepticism and outright denial have long been associated with the right-wing of politics in the UK and elsewhere.

The Bright Blue think tank, which campaigns for liberal conservatism, has urged Tories to “loudly disown” Donald Trump’s views on the subject, warning that failing to do so could “contaminate” the party.

Being associated with climate denial, as the science and the weather make it increasingly clear what is happening, could ultimately see the party paying the price at the ballot box, Bright Blue warned.