Boris Johnson caught in trap between chasing money and keeping political flame lit

Like the sun rising and setting, the Boris Johnson rumour mill is turning again. He’s that dependable, a seemingly never-ending source of gossip and intrigue.

This time, the drums are beating about his new company, Better Earth Limited. Incorporated at Companies House in London, Better Earth names the former prime minister as a director, along with Amir Adnani, president and CEO of Uranium Energy Corp. The latter is a US mining and exploration company promoted by Steve Bannon, former adviser to Donald Trump.

Adnani has gone onshore with Boris, possibly because even the ex-PM would baulk at heading an offshore company registered in a secretive tax haven. That is Mr Adnani’s usual route, with a network of businesses listed under his name in the British Virgin Islands. Mr Johnson is credited as a director and co-chairman. As if that was not enough, to send tongues wagging even more furiously, Charlotte Owen is cited as Better Earth’s vice-president.

She is the junior political adviser elevated by Johnson in his resignation honours to the House of Lords at the age of just 30. Quite what he saw in Baroness Owen that caused her to be anointed, while other more senior, longer-serving male and female staff were overlooked completely or did not receive the same high accolade, was the subject of enormous controversy and speculation.

Speaks frequently without saying much

Since becoming Baroness Owen of Alderley Edge in Cheshire, her hometown – a title she will hold for life – she has spoken fairly frequently in the Lords without saying very much at all. Mostly she has talked about technology issues. She mentioned climate change only once, in her maiden speech, in which she also thanked Johnson for “putting a great deal of trust in me”.

Roles in environment and climate do not figure on Baroness Owen’s CV. Now, though, Charlotte and her ex-boss are firmly back in the headlines and she has a senior role in his company that appears to be centred on the warming planet.

After a lull, we’re back on characteristic Johnsonian ground. He reassured the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba), which oversees ex-ministerial appointments, that he “did not meet with, nor did you make any decisions specific to Better Earth during your time in office”.

Links to Adnani

Since then it’s been discovered that Mr Johnson met Scott Melbye, the executive vice president of Uranium Energy Corp, Adnani’s company, in the House of Commons in May 2022 when he was still prime minister. Mr Adnani posted on social media that Mr Johnson and Mr Melbye spoke about “nuclear power and uranium”. The meeting was not recorded in the prime minister’s official diary.

Some clue as to the nature of the discussion might be provided by the fact that days before leaving office, Mr Johnson signed off an extra £700m investment in the new Sizewell C nuclear power station, saying the UK needed to “Go Nuclear, go large!”.

Critics, such as Caroline Lucas, the then Green MP and former party leader, were quick to pounce, denouncing the Sizewell C expansion as “massively costly, achingly slow and carries huge unnecessary risks”.

Uranium is the base of the enriched uranium required to fuel nuclear reactors. Sizewell’s growth would be welcome to uranium suppliers.

Sure enough, Mr Adnani from Uranium Energy Corp, hailed the announcement. He seems to have had advance notice of it, posting on Twitter before it was made: “Boris Johnson plans to sign off on new £30bn nuclear plant in his final week in power! #uranium.”

Mr Adnani is close to Mr Bannon, and has appeared twice on his War Room podcast. He told Mr Trump’s ex-confidante his aim was to obtain “full spectrum energy dominance”.

Better Earth's team

So, what is Better Earth? Its office is in a serviced building in Sevenoaks in Kent, and it portrays itself as an “energy transition company”. The firm’s work-in-progress website says it will “work directly with national governments and regions that are seeking both inward and/or to reduce their emissions ahead of 2030”.

Better Earth counts two other Conservative lights on its senior team: Chris Skidmore, the minister who resigned over Rishi Sunak’s oil and gas plan; and Nigel Adams, a close ally of Mr Johnson and a former minister without portfolio. Mr Adams is registered as the company’s CEO.

According to Companies House, Better Earth has a single share, which is owned by Emissions Reduction Corp in Carson City, Nevada. That entity was previously called Carbon Royalty Corporation, registered in Delaware – home to many US companies that wish to remain opaque – and counted Mr Adnani and Nicole Shanahan as directors.

Ms Shanahan was Robert F Kennedy Jr’s running mate in the current presidential race until he dropped out and endorsed Mr Trump.

Political embers

Other former PMs might think twice before heading down such a path. Not Mr Johnson. It’s not as if he needs the money: since leaving office, he has been earning a small fortune on the speakers’ circuit, mainly in the US and Asia, where he is feted.

He has joined the TV channel GB News as a commentator and programme maker, covering the US presidential election and next UK general election. That, together with his column for the Mail, nets him a sizeable sum from media work.

Then there is his memoir, Unleashed, which is due to be published next month. It has earned him a reported £500,000 advance and is bound to be a bestseller that will earn him £4m according to some estimates. He can already claim to be the bestselling prime minister-turned-author of the century, with his 10 previous books having sold 600,000 copies.

His 11th book was due to be a much-delayed account of William Shakespeare’s life, for which he received an advance of £80,000 in 2015. No publication date has appeared for the Shakespeare volume, which will be superseded by Unleashed.

Mr Johnson lived briefly in Camberwell, South London, in a town house he bought in July 2019 with his then-girlfriend and now wife, Carrie Symonds. Today, home for Mr and Mrs Johnson and their three young children is Brightwell Manor, a £3.8m moated mansion in the Oxfordshire countryside.

He is said to be enjoying, for just about the first time in his life, having serious money without the constraints of public office. That may be the reason for Better Earth and his association with Mr Adnani: that he would like more.

The irony is that while speculation persists about his life and business activities, Mr Johnson is missed by his fellow Tories. The terrible election defeat, followed by a lacklustre leadership contest, have only served to reinforce his popularity among some Tory activists. As with many Republicans and Mr Trump, they disregard his peccadilloes, preferring to focus on his ability to galvanise and lead the party to election victory.

While his critics fume and investigate, Mr Johnson continues on his own sweet way. That too has a familiar ring.