Bucks MP sends legal warning to climate group

MP Steve Baker has issued a legal warning to a campaign group after it criticised his views on climate change.

The MP for Wycombe, and member of the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, branded members of Steve Baker Watch “muppets” and accused them of making “slanderous” statements against him.

Since its formation in 2022, the Wycombe citizen group has accused Steve Baker of spreading inaccurate information about climate change and the environmental crisis.

The Conservative politician hit out at Steve Baker Watch during a wide-ranging interview with the BBC Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).

Asked if he was concerned about the group, he said: “No. They are doing me a favour.

“They are actually a net benefit to me now, because they are showing everyone that I have been active in defence of the interests of the people of Wycombe.

“I called them clowns. They dressed up as clowns. I am tempted to say that they are muppets now, just to see if they turn up as muppets.”

Mr Baker referred to a recent protest in which members of Steve Baker Watch dressed as clowns outside his constituency office in response to him calling them “clowns” for erecting a blue plaque suggesting that he will lose his seat at the next General Election.

The MP added: “I have met with them[…]. Since they are Christians, I am a Christian, we prayed together.

“That is lovely, but I wish they would start treating me in a Christian manner, because they are propagating things, which, frankly, I regard as slanderous.

“But I haven’t got the will to be pursuing them in the courts. But as I say, politically, they are doing me a favour now because the public in Wycombe can see that I have stood up for them.

“The rise of this hysterical group just shows that I am doing my job for the people of Wycombe and taking the pain for it.”

Mr Baker, a former risk manager, made the comments as he was asked about his support of a paper denying the climate emergency – published by climate sceptic think tank the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

The MP shared the paper last year, claiming that politicians and activists are “twisting the science to their particular ends”.

When asked about his stance, he told the LDRS that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s global warming scenario ‘RCP8.5’ – under which average global temperature would rise by 4.4C by 2100 – was “highly unlikely”.

He added: “As somebody who has been a professional risk manager, who professionally worked in thermodynamics, with an MSc in computer science, I do feel able to do my research in this area.”

A spokesperson for Steve Baker Watch, told the LDRS: “We have never made any derogatory remarks apart from saying he is a climate change denier.

“The irony is that if he talks about being hysterical, the only person who has been hysterical is Steve. He is the one that calls us clowns. He is the one that calls us muppets. We resent that.

“Now there is an election coming up, so is trying to convince people that he is concerned with local issues. We will always continue to take local action peacefully to bring the climate issue to the attention of Wycombe electors.”