This story is a part of Covering Climate Now’s week of coverage focused on stories with the theme of 'climate politics'. Covering Climate Now is a global journalism collaboration committed to strengthening coverage of the climate story. 

The ongoing US-UK trade talks have been seen by some lobby groups as an opportunity to strip back environmental and food safety regulations to allow them to sell products – pesticides, hormone-fed meat, genetically modified crops (GMOs), and chemicals – that have been previously banned under EU law. The groups represent industries worth billions of dollars, and are supported by some of the world’s largest polluters. 

They are also backed by thinktanks and campaign groups with histories of obstructing Climate action and ties to funders of climate science denial, and are affiliated with UK organisations closely connected to the UK's Department of International Trade, DeSmog can reveal.