{"id":7285,"date":"2026-04-15T00:23:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T23:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/?p=7285"},"modified":"2026-04-16T00:08:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T23:08:17","slug":"reform-uk-posterboy-calls-out-party-for-denying-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/news\/2026\/04\/15\/reform-uk-posterboy-calls-out-party-for-denying-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform UK poster boy calls out party for denying climate change"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Innes Paton, Fred Byrne & Elle Douglas-Brown.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n

A poster boy for Reform UK has spoken out against the party\u2019s denial of climate science after his first public appearance.<\/p>\n

Ryan Adams, a 22-year-old politics student, appeared on stage in a livestreamed<\/a> Reform UK rally where he spoke of hiding his political beliefs while studying at University of Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

After the rally, Adams called out Reform for climate change denial. He told us, \u201cI think Reform should take on a \u2018we believe in climate change\u2019 stance. I believe in climate change, it\u2019s the realest threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claims of being marked down for right-wing views played up for cameras<\/b><\/p>\n

At the bizarre<\/a> rally in the P&J Live in Aberdeen, Ryan Adams shuffled through crowds to loud instrumental rock music and said he wants to \u201cturn the tides after decades of SNP failure\u201d in a live interview with political commentator Charlie Rowley, a defected Tory government advisor and GB News panelist.<\/p>\n

\"Nigel
Nigel Farage and Malcolm Offord appeared at the P&J Live on Monday (Photo: Fred Byrne)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The student, who told us he was vetted to run for Reform in the 2027 council elections, shared on stage that at our Scottish Parliament hustings debate<\/a> on the university\u2019s campus, <\/i>a classmate was \u201cdisgusted\u201d when he showed support for Reform.<\/p>\n

Spurred on by Rowley to discuss academic freedom, Adams said, \u201cIt felt nice to finally show my political self and not shy away from it as I\u2019ve felt I\u2019ve had to do for these four years\u2026 lecturers maybe hadn\u2019t given me good marks because of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later, he was asked by our reporters to clarify if he believes his political views influenced his grades. Adams backtracked on his on-air statement about being marked down, clarifying that he does not believe he was marked down for his politics, but rather felt the need to present left-wing perspectives to avoid being marked down.<\/p>\n

The student said he received a “disappointing” mark back for his dissertation about how climate change exacerbates terrorism.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for University of Aberdeen replied, \u201cAll assessments are marked anonymously, meaning markers do not see students’ names. This ensures fairness, consistency, and protection against bias.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acknowledging the reality of climate change, he said that he did not feel able to raise his views with seniors in Reform UK.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to move to renewables, but not at the speed we are,\u201d added Adams.<\/p>\n

He also claimed to have left the Conservative Party because its local members were \u201cnasty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The
Ryan Adams is a final year politics student at University of Aberdeen (Photo: Fred Byrne)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reform has long-denied climate science<\/b><\/p>\n

Reform UK has consistently refused to accept scientific consensus on the need to mitigate the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Pressed to accept climate science, Reform\u2019s Scottish leader Malcolm Offord said<\/a>, \u201cLet\u2019s not get caught up too much in the science. Let\u2019s be more pragmatic, not dogmatic, and not be ideological about this.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he considers science an ideology, Offord retorted, \u201cIt is your science versus my science.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Scottish Reform leader was then asked if stopping investment into renewables would let down Aberdeen\u2019s energy workers.<\/p>\n

Offord responded, \u201cInvestment goes from hydrocarbons into renewables,\u201d before his team stopped our interview and escorted the Scottish Reform leader away.<\/p>\n

At the rally, Nigel Farage branded Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, \u201cmad\u201d for believing in net zero “insanity”. He accused Miliband of believing in net-zero \u201cas a substitute for some form of God, or religion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reform UK leader called out the Scottish Government for not drilling at new sites while Norway develops drilling, and said only 1% of global emissions come from Britain.<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage has promoted climate denying commentators such as Jordan Peterson, saying to him during an interview in 2025 that \u201cit is nuts\u201d to claim that carbon dioxide is a pollutant. In 2015, he admitted, \u201cI haven\u2019t got a clue whether climate change is driven by carbon-dioxide emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last month, a Reform UK candidate claimed<\/a> that the planet \u201cdoesn\u2019t have a climate crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rally was part of Reform UK\u2019s Scottish Parliament election campaign, where they are currently polling in second place, 40+ seats behind the SNP.<\/p>\n

The Gaudie <\/i>encourages readers to register to vote<\/a> by April 20th. Residents of Scotland, including international students, aged 16 or over can vote on May 7th.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Innes Paton, Fred Byrne & Elle Douglas-Brown. A poster boy for Reform UK has spoken out against the party\u2019s denial of climate science after his first public appearance. Ryan Adams, a 22-year-old politics student, appeared on stage in a livestreamed Reform UK rally where he spoke of hiding his political beliefs while studying at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":7286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":117,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[1668,254,1837,627,1821,1836,311,1803,377,1835,1740,183],"wf_post_folders":[181],"class_list":{"0":"post-7285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-2026-elections","10":"tag-charlie-rowey","11":"tag-elections","12":"tag-malcolm-offord","13":"tag-nigel-farage","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-reform","16":"tag-reform-uk","17":"tag-ryan-adams","18":"tag-scottish-parliament","19":"tag-university-of-aberdeen"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Gaudie Staff","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/gaudie-staff\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Ryan-Adams-e1776207590780-300x202.jpeg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["2026 elections<\/a>","Aberdeen<\/a>","Charlie Rowey<\/a>","elections<\/a>","Malcolm Offord<\/a>","Nigel Farage<\/a>","Politics<\/a>","Reform<\/a>","Reform UK<\/a>","Ryan Adams<\/a>","Scottish Parliament<\/a>","University of Aberdeen<\/a>"],"unlinked":["2026 elections<\/span>","Aberdeen<\/span>","Charlie Rowey<\/span>","elections<\/span>","Malcolm Offord<\/span>","Nigel Farage<\/span>","Politics<\/span>","Reform<\/span>","Reform UK<\/span>","Ryan Adams<\/span>","Scottish Parliament<\/span>","University of Aberdeen<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 months ago","modified":"Updated 5 months ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 15 April 2026","modified":"Updated on 16 April 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 15 April 2026 00:23","modified":"Updated on 16 April 2026 00:08"},"featured_img_caption":"Ryan Adams appeared at a Reform UK rally in Aberdeen (Photo: Fred Byrne)","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7285"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7294,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7285\/revisions\/7294"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7285"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}