David TC Davies under fire for helping to delay phase out of petrol engines

Martin Shipton

Former Welsh Secretary David TC Davies has been criticised by net zero campaigners after it emerged that he had backed car manufacturers who wanted the phase-out of petrol engines to be delayed.

The website Democracy for Sale has won a case at the Information Tribunal to release documents detailing how Mr Davies was lobbied by Toyota and Aston Martin.

After learning of its victory, the site published a statement saying: “We all know big business spends a fortune on lobbying. More than 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists secured access to the COP climate summit that closed in Brazil this week.

“Here in the UK, government transparency data shows oil and gas lobbyists met ministers 500 times during Labour’s first year in office.

“What’s far harder to uncover is what those lobbyists are pushing for — and how they do it.

“That’s why, for almost two years, Democracy for Sale has fought a major legal battle to force the government to reveal how some of the world’s biggest carmakers secretly lobbied ministers to weaken climate policy. And now, we’ve won.

“The newly released documents show how Toyota and Aston Martin successfully courted a climate-sceptic Conservative cabinet minister as they pushed to delay the 2030 phase-out of petrol engines.

“Soon after these meetings, ministers announced the petrol phase-out would be pushed back to 2035, and small carmakers would be exempt — changes that benefited Toyota and Aston Martin respectively.

“We first requested records of meetings between then-Welsh Secretary David TC Davies and carmakers in December 2023 under FOI laws. After repeated refusals, we took the case to the Information Tribunal — and finally won.

‘Public interest’

“In a strongly worded ruling, Judge Marks highlighted the ‘overwhelming public interest in tackling the existential threat of climate change’ and stressed the importance of scrutinising potential ‘greenwashing’.

“She also reaffirmed a core democratic principle: government ‘can be held to account for its words and promises behind closed doors.’

“David TC Davies was once among the most climate sceptical voices on the Tory benches. An amateur boxer known as the Tory Tornado, he railed against the ‘so-called scientific consensus on climate change’, picking fights with the BBC, the Met Office and even the rock band The 1975.

“By 2023, Davies’s stance had shifted. He publicly supported net zero and visited low carbon projects in Wales, where he was the Secretary of State.

“But he remained receptive to industry concerns. In May 2023, Davies met Toyota to discuss the Conservatives’ proposed ban on new petrol-engine cars from 2030. The policy, originally set by Boris Johnson’s government, threatened the Japanese giant’s lucrative hybrid range, including the Prius.

“Toyota asked Davies to ‘extend hybrid until 2035,’ according to the meeting note. Davies said he would support them ‘in whatever way he can,’ including writing to other ministers.”

Exemption

A month later, Aston Martin asked for an exemption for “small volume manufacturers.” Davies “agreed with Aston Martin” that carmakers producing fewer than 2,500 vehicles per year should be excluded and promised to raise the issue with the Department for Transport.

In September 2023 — just months after these meetings — the Conservative government announced hybrids could be sold until 2035, and small carmakers would be exempt. The new Labour government has since gone even further, explicitly name-checking the ‘Toyota Prius’ in its policy announcement.

Toyota has been labelled an “aggressive lobbyist” and has been rated among the most “negatively influential global companies” on climate policy.

Greenpeace’s Doug Parr told Open Democracy the documents show lobbyists “manipulating government decisions crucial to people’s health and well-being for private gain.”

Mr Davies told Open Democracy that “talking to major employers in Wales, including Aston Martin and Toyota, was one of my responsibilities”.

He said he was “glad the government ultimately recognised that supporting Welsh manufacturing jobs was more important than pandering to radical anti-motorist campaigners.”

Climate change

In her judgement Judge Marks noted that many car companies “can reasonably be considered to have contributed to climate change through their emitting activities.” It is, she said, “of strong public interest” to know whether ministers were privately urged to change policy in ways that favoured them.

Democracy for Sales’s solicitor Julia Eriksen of Leigh Day welcomed the ruling but said “it should not have taken a Tribunal judge” for the Wales Office to respond adequately to a request about such a major public interest issue. “We hope this ruling will send a message that such requests should not be brushed aside,” she said.

Mr Davies, who is now chief of staff to Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Darren Millar, told Nation.Cymru: “In my role as Secretary of State for Wales I obviously had meetings with significant employers and listened very carefully to the representations they made.

“I don’t apologise for supporting measures that will help companies prosper and I certainly have no compunction about prioritising jobs over the push to net zero.”