Labour's cash from multi-millionaire eco-warrior funding Just Stop Oil

Labour accepts thousands in donations from ‘zero carbonista’ multi-millionaire eco-warrior who helps to bankroll Just Stop Oil zealots

• Dale Vince said he donated to the opposition ‘to help them win’ the next election
• The 61-year-old owns Forest Green Rovers football club in Gloucestershire
• Has given Labour £360,000 since the last election via his Ecotricity power firm
• But he is also one of Just Stop Oil’s largest individual financial backers

A multi-millionaire eco-warrior helping to bankroll Just Stop Oil is also pouring thousands of pounds into the Labour Party.

Dale Vince said he donated to the opposition ‘to help them win, to help them into government so they have the chance to deliver their agenda, which is my agenda, social justice and a green economy’.

The 61-year-old vegan owner of Forest Green Rovers football club has given the party £360,000 since the last election via his Ecotricity power firm.

He also gave Sir Keir £20,000 for his 2020 leadership bid and £10,000 to deputy leader Angela Rayner.  He has also given money to the Green Party.

But he is also one of Just Stop Oil’s largest individual backers, telling Sky News he donated ‘tens of thousands of pounds’ to launch the group, and more last November when it suffered funding problems.

He said he sometimes disagreed with their tactics, but added: ‘I understand why they do what they do. It’s what they have in their power to do.

‘Whereas big business has different powers to pursue its agenda, and we have no real answer to that except sometimes to take to the streets.’

Sir Keir has publicly criticised Just Stop Oil for stunts that have seen activists  glue themselves to roads, halting traffic, and attack works of art in galleries.

The 61-year-old vegan owner of Forest Green Rovers football club has given the party £360,000 since the last election via his Ecotricity power firm.

He said he sometimes disagreed with Just Stop Oil’s tactics, but added: ‘I understand why they do what they do. It’s what they have in their power to do.’

Just Stop Oil supporters on motorway gantries around the M25 last November as part of its campaign to demand that the government halts all new oil and gas licences

Mr Vince is a self-made multi-millionaire who started off as a penniless hippy.

It was his separation from first wife Kathleen Wyatt that saw him begin a life as a ‘nomad’ and becoming a new age traveller in 1984.

But when he created a wind turbine to power a trailer he was living in, the idea for the business that would make him rich was born.

By 1995 he had founded the Renewable Energy Company and launched his first ‘green energy’ wind turbine the following year.

It became Ecotricity, which in 2018 brought in revenue of some £165million a year.

He told Sky he had only met Sir keir twice, adding: ‘I’m a particular fan of his, the way he goes about things and the things he says. I think he’d be a great prime minister.’

Last April he said that protesters who glued themselves to goals at Premier league games were amusing, adding: ‘I don’t really have a problem with what they are doing as long as it is non-violent. Disruption is part and parcel of protest.’

However in November it was revealed Labour is drawing up plans to hit activists with stiffer sentences if the party takes power.

Sir Keir, a former Director of Public Prosecutions, is said to be determined to crack down on those who have blocked emergency services and created misery for people across Britain.

Labour is looking at issuing guidance to judges to hand down tougher sentences where possible. However, the party is also calling on greater use of injunctions to curb the behaviour of protesters who glue themselves to roads to cause maximum disruption.

The party has been approached to comment. 

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