Welsh Reform politician caught lying about fossil fuel interests

Reform

Welsh Reform UK politician Cai Parry-Jones MS has been caught out lying about his fossil fuel interests.

Another anti-Net Zero campaigner in Reform, Parry-Jones strongly denied the claim that his share holdings benefit from climate deregulation. He was quickly shown up for it.

To make matters worse, this all took place as Wales and the UK grappled with another intense heatwave. Some 2,700 people already died across the UK from extreme heat exposure. In summer 2024, in just five days, at least 557 Welsh people died of extreme heat. This is our climate-changed future.

Here’s yet another story of right-wing climate-reality denialism, corporate greenwashing and destructive political lobbying. All that, plus Reform once again being called out on their bullshit. About time.

Hi Cai,

Great to hear from you. You said a lot of stuff there so I thought I’d breakdown my reply:

1. An elected politician owns shares (worth at least 50% of their salary) in a company where roughly 90% of the profits are from fossil fuels.

At the same time the politician is… https://t.co/DAjP2K2xJK

— Will Hayward (@WillHayCardiff) July 13, 2026

Caught with oily hands

Parry-Jones MS is Reform’s shadow minister for ‘Finance and Government Efficiency’ (read: Crypto and Austerity). He was called out for his five-figure holdings in fossil firm Phillips 66. His register of interests as a Senedd Member (MS) publicly lists some £38,000 in the company.

This was first highlighted by Welsh journalist Will Hayward and his team, who approached Parry-Jones for comment. He didn’t. Hayward explained Parry-Jones’ public policy positioning online:

He derided people “crying” about global warming. … He called on any climate roles inside the Welsh government to be scrapped. Among the roles that he called to be scrapped include things that actually help mitigate climate change, which will help with things like coastal erosion, or helping us combat heatwaves, or help farmers adjusting to the new reality of climate change.

Hayward rightly points out that the evidence is “overwhelming” that: a) climate change is really happening; and b) it is caused foremost by the combustion of fossil fuels. Yet Parry-Jones has direct, material interests in the continuation of that apocalyptic fossil fuel production and consumption.

Even more astutely, Hayward points out that Reform have the largest support base among poorer Welsh people. Yet the poorest in society, and those from the “most deprived backgrounds”, are those most at risk from climate change-related disasters. Hayward asks:

Why are Reform seemingly lobbying against the interests of the people that voted for them?

The company Parry-Jones holds £38k of shares in, Phillips 66, is an US-based oil company. It:

Owns 13 refineries, which can produce 2.2m barrels of oil per day; and
Owns over 15,000 miles of pipelines.

Hayward mentions DeSmog’s reporting that two-thirds of Reform UK’s political donor base are fossil fuel companies or those linked to them. Hayward asked Parry-Jones whether these interests were linked.

Climate change missing from most UK media reports on June heatwave

Reform — Here comes the slippery denial

He declined Hayward’s request for comment. Yet Parry-Jones nonetheless took to X and other platforms to denounce Hayward’s reporting:

Will Hayward suggests that because I hold shares in Phillips 66, I have a financial interest in scrapping Net Zero. Ten minutes of real research tells a different story.

He claims that, since the UK’s Net Zero targets were announced in 2019, his shares actually rose by 14%. Therefore, by Parry-Jones’ adept analysis, he couldn’t be anti-Net Zero on account of his shares. He adds:

Furthermore, the company has invested in developing the UK’s Humber Zero project, one of the world’s largest planned carbon capture schemes, part-funded by government decarbonisation money and needing more of it to go ahead. On Will’s own logic, my shares would do better if Net Zero stayed.

And yet I want it gone. I will always call for this economy-destroying target to be scrapped. It is killing British industry and loading some of the most expensive energy prices in the world onto hard-working families. If people want to scrutinise my interests, good. But start with doing proper research.

What Parry-Jones has tried to do here is paint himself as self-sacrificing, entirely uninterested in his shares. (Despite the fact that these are literally called his registered interests.) He’s also tried to greenwash the Phillips 66’s activities, stating — not untruthfully — that they’re building “carbon capture“.

On the surface, ‘carbon capture’ is an environmentalist initiative. It claims to extract CO2 and other harmful greenhouse gases from the Earth’s atmosphere. But, as reporting has shown, carbon capture is pushed by fossil fuel companies themselves — so that they can continue pumping harmful emissions into the air.

Worse still, it’s a terribly underdeveloped technology, especially compared with renewable energy sources which can already replace fossil fuels. ‘Carbon capture’ is essentially pie in the sky — an oily distraction.

Hottest June day ever provokes climate denial from right-wing cranks

Hayward hits back hard

Here’s the thing that “ten minutes of research“, as prescribed by Parry-Jones, can tell you. Like many harmful such fossil fuel companies, Phillips 66 wants to publicly cover its back. No surprises there.

The carbon capture psy-op, like the “carbon footprint” scam before it, is pushed by the profiteering companies who control our energy. Not so that they can actually solve the climate poly-crisis, but so they can continue making unimaginable profits for shareholders. Hayward points this out:

An elected politician owns shares (worth at least 50% of their salary) in a company where roughly 90% of the profits are from fossil fuels. At the same time the politician is deriding and undermining efforts to tackle a climate crisis. A crisis which is driven overwhelmingly by fossil fuels. If you can’t work out why that’s a story – I can’t help you.

So Phillips 66 is still overwhelmingly — 90% by Hayward’s reporting — invested in fossil fuels. Therefore, the company is predominantly invested in the environmental destruction that harmful fossil fuels cause globally. And, by extension, so too is Parry-Jones: via his shares and his position in oily Reform PLC.

As we’ve seen for decades globally, Parry-Jones is yet another fossil-backed politician working against any regulation that would curb emissions. Reform PLC is just the newest, shinier front for oil in the UK.

And Hayward picks up on Parry-Jones’ actual lack of research, too:

I don’t want to preach to a seasoned investor but clearly UK net zero policy isn’t the only determinant on the share price of a Houston based oil company. The UK market is less than 10% of their revenue (did you not read your shareholders report?).

Hayward also skewers the MS and his party’s refusal to engage, before throwing an online tantrum:

You can’t whine about a lack of research while refusing to engage. …

You talk about wanting scrutiny, but your party is the only one which relentlessly declines interviews and questions. I have literally written books about the failings of Labour, Plaid and the Tories, and they still grant interviews. By contrast your party, who say they advocated debate and free speech, relentlessly hide and dodge questions. If you actually welcome scrutiny, why not do an interview with me?