Fury as foreign polluter demands payout from UK after court blocks dirty coal mine
Legal case that could cost Brits millions led by barrister who moonlights as a Conservative MP
Britain is facing an astonishing legal attack from a foreign-owned polluting company that believes it can wring a huge payout from UK taxpayers—simply because it’s been stopped from making massive profits by digging up coal and pumping out pollution.
Singapore-based Woodhouse Investment Pte Ltd—which owns a whopping 80% of West Cumbria Mining—has launched a claim in a shadowy “corporate court” after the High Court quashed plans for a controversial new coal mine in Cumbria.
If they win, the bill will be dumped squarely on the shoulders of the British public. Experts warn it could run into many millions—money that could be spent on hospitals, schools or insulating homes, instead of rewarding a foreign corporation for not being allowed to profit off killing us with their pollution.
The “unjust” legal mechanism
The case marks the first ever legal challenge to UK climate policy by a fossil fuel firm under so-called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) rules. These were tucked away in a 1975 trade agreement between the UK and Singapore, back when climate change wasn’t even a political talking point.
ISDS tribunals operate behind closed doors, allowing foreign investors to sue governments when “green” regulations cut into their expected profits. A recent UN report branded them “unjust, undemocratic and dysfunctional”, yet fossil fuel giants have already pocketed an eye-watering $80 billion from such cases since 1998.
Dirty coal rejected
The Cumbrian mine, which would have been the UK’s first new deep coal mine in 30 years, was dramatically halted in September when a High Court judge ruled it was unlawful for ministers to claim the project would somehow be “net zero” in emissions. The ruling ripped up the Conservative government’s earlier backing and the incoming Labour administration quickly withdrew all support.
Campaigners say this is exactly the sort of legal blackmail they’ve been warning about. Cleodie Rickard, from Global Justice Now, said, “We’ve been calling on the government to scrap ISDS in its trade deals for years, to stop exactly this eventuality: fossil fuel companies suing us over necessary climate action”.
The moonlighting Conservative MP
Adding fuel to the fury, Woodhouse Investment itself is owned by a Cayman Islands firm—a tax haven notorious for secrecy—and the company is being represented by Conservative MP and barrister Geoffrey Cox, alongside City law firm Withers.
For now, ministers are refusing to comment—but the public will want answers as to why an obscure, decades-old trade deal is being used to demand compensation for not letting a foreign company profit from polluting our air.