Credit;PA
Nigel Farage is in line for a multi-million pound payday from a green energy firm, despite being a vocal opponent of the government’s net zero drive.
The former UKIP leader could net up to €18.5 million (£15.7 million) in share options through investments in a Dutch carbon offsetting movement.
Farage, who recently launched a political movement to challenge Boris Johnson’s net zero push, chairs the advisory of Dutch Green Business (DGB).
He was reportedly brought onto the board by his friend John Mappin, who has a 30 per cent stake in the business with his wife.
According to the Daily Telegraph, Mappin is a “pro-Putin Cornish hotelier and leading conspiracy theorist” who offers discounts to anti-vaxxers.
Farage is a leading member of “Vote Power Not Poverty”, a campaign fighting Johnson’s climate change agenda. He has insisted he is a conservationist, and the campaign is aimed at urging the government to develop the UK’s own energy supplies.
And it has emerged that the ex-Brexit Party chief owns one million share options in DGB, which can be redeemed if the company’s share price leaps from its current level of €1 to €20 – netting Farage €18.5 million.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Farage said that his relationship with DGB “is in abeyance”, and played down the likelihood of receiving a windfall from the company, adding: “If I had a better forecast at Cheltenham last week I would have won £20m.”
Mappin, meanwhile, has been loudly espousing pro-Putin views on Twitter. On 24 February, the day the Russian president invaded Ukraine, he said: “What President Putin has done is a gift for the freedom of the world. Those who love freedom have a duty to back him up.”
Selwyn Duijvestijn, chief executive of DGB, said: “We share a mutual passion for planting trees, but DGB disagrees with [Farage]’s recent comments on net zero.
“DGB has no relationship whatsoever with the Mappin family and does not in any way agree with their political views. We are distancing ourselves from them entirely.”
