{"id":40702,"date":"2018-11-19T08:01:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:01:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40702"},"modified":"2018-11-19T08:01:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T13:01:35","slug":"matthew-and-sarah-elliott-how-a-uk-power-couple-links-us-libertarians-and-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-to-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=40702","title":{"rendered":"Matthew and Sarah Elliott: How a UK Power Couple Links US Libertarians and Fossil Fuel Lobbyists to Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3 id=\"page-title\" class=\"page__title title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/2018\/11\/18\/matthew-sarah-elliott-uk-power-couple-linking-us-libertarians-and-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-brexit\">Matthew and Sarah Elliott: How a UK Power Couple Links US Libertarians and Fossil Fuel Lobbyists to Brexit<\/a><\/h3>\n<article class=\"node-13309 node node-blog node-promoted view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-bimage field-type-image field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.desmogblog.com\/sites\/beta.desmogblog.com\/files\/styles\/full_width_blog_image\/public\/blogimages\/Elliot%20US%20Libertarians%20Brexit%20cropped.jpg?itok=0uQMf6V3\" alt=\"The Elliotts network map\" width=\"826\" height=\"395\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>If you have detected a distinctly American flavour to the rampant lobbying in Westminster corridors over a Brexit deal, there is a good reason\u00a0why.<\/p>\n<p>A close look at the transatlantic connections of the London-based groups pushing for the most deregulated form of Brexit reveals strong ties to major <span class=\"caps\">US<\/span> libertarian influencers. These include fossil fuel magnates the Koch brothers \u2014 known for funding climate science denial around the world \u2014 and the man who bankrolled Donald Trump\u2019s campaign, Robert\u00a0Mercer.<\/p>\n<p>At the heart of this network lies a little-known power couple, Matthew and Sarah Elliott. Together, the husband and wife team connect senior members of the Leave campaign and groups pushing a libertarian free-market ideology from offices in Westminster\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.co.uk\/55-tufton-street\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tufton Street<\/a> to major <span class=\"caps\">US<\/span> libertarian lobbyists and\u00a0funders.<\/p>\n<p>Collectively, the network aims to use Brexit as an opportunity to slash regulations in the <span class=\"caps\">UK<\/span>, paving the way for a wide-ranging <span class=\"caps\">US<\/span>&#8211;<span class=\"caps\">UK<\/span> free-trade deal that could have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.co.uk\/2018\/09\/24\/hard-brexit-lobbyists-demand-uk-roll-back-environmental-standards-strike-free-trade-deals-us-china-and-india\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">disastrous consequences<\/a> for the\u00a0environment.<\/p>\n<p>The current draft withdrawal agreement appears to try and provide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desmog.co.uk\/2018\/11\/14\/3-really-important-things-draft-brexit-withdrawal-agreement-says-about-environment-and-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">some protection<\/a> for the current level of environmental regulation \u2014 at least in principle. But politicians associated with this transatlantic network are lobbying hard for the draft deal to be scrapped, along with those\u00a0protections.<\/p>\n<p>This DeSmog <span class=\"caps\">UK<\/span> investigation reveals the strength of the ties between Matthew and Sarah Elliott, <span class=\"caps\">UK<\/span> lobbyists and politicians, and <span class=\"caps\">US<\/span> groups with vested interests in fossil fuels keen to profit from\u00a0deregulation.<\/p>\n<p>It shows how organisations with strong ties to the Koch Brothers and Robert Mercer increased their political activities in the <span class=\"caps\">UK<\/span>immediately before and after the Brexit\u00a0referendum.<\/p>\n<p>\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n<h3><a id=\"Power couple\" target=\"_blank\" name=\"Power couple\"><\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matthew and Sarah Elliott: How a UK Power Couple Links US Libertarians and Fossil Fuel Lobbyists to Brexit If you have detected a distinctly American flavour to the rampant lobbying in Westminster corridors over a Brexit deal, there is a good reason\u00a0why. A close look at the transatlantic connections of the London-based groups pushing for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,5,6],"tags":[23067,23070,5582,7735,23068,20145,5317,23071,3268,23073,22197,23065,23069,23066,23072],"class_list":["post-40702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics","category-energy-2","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-55-tufton-street","tag-atlas-economic-research-foundation","tag-brexit","tag-cato-institute","tag-charles-g-koch-charitable-foundation","tag-chloe-farand","tag-desmog-blog","tag-global-warming-policy-foundation-gwpf","tag-institute-of-economic-affairs","tag-institute-of-free-trade-ift","tag-mat-hope","tag-matthew-elliott","tag-mercer-family-foundation","tag-sarah-elliott","tag-taxpayers-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40703,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40702\/revisions\/40703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}