Kemi Badenoch enjoyed a £14,000 week-long “residential” with her family along with a small group of the shadow cabinet courtesy of the Tory donor Neil Record, who chairs a climate sceptic lobby group.

The Conservative leader was joined by other members of the party team at a location in Gloucestershire during the February half-term; most of the shadow cabinet were not invited.

The trip took place about a month before Badenoch U-turned on the party’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2050, saying it was “impossible” for the UK to meet – one of her first major policy pivots since taking over in the autumn.

Costs for the week were met by Record, chair of Net Zero Watch, who owns an estate in Gloucestershire with a swimming pool, donkeys and 180 acres of sheep-grazed grass.

A spokesperson for Badenoch did not respond to questions about whether she and Conservative colleagues was hosted on Record’s estate or elsewhere, and whether he was present at the residential. In relation to the meeting, the spokesperson said: “Kemi Badenoch has been raising concerns about net zero 2050 since 2019. Families and businesses in Britain are suffering with the most expensive energy bills in Europe. It is not responsible for politicians to simply ignore the huge costs of Ed Miliband’s green zealotry.”

Record is chair of Net Zero Watch, a lobby group that argues policies to deal with the climate emergency are too expensive. He is known to have funded the Global Warming Policy Foundation, another climate sceptic group.

He has written frequently for the Telegraph about his scepticism about action on net zero. Record has been approached for comment through the Net Zero Watch campaign.

According to the MPs’ register of interests, Badenoch estimated the costs of the “residential” with her family at £14,350 for six days, while Julia Lopez, her parliamentary private secretary, and Alex Burghart, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, each declared the same value of £14,350 for a three-day stay.

In Badenoch’s declaration, she said: “Provision of workspace, accommodation and associated hospitality for a series of work meetings in Gloucestershire over six days with colleagues and others who attended different sessions during various times of the week. My family attended as it was half-term week so we could spend time together outside the formal meeting part of the residential.”

It is understood that most of the shadow cabinet were not invited to the residential event, with Conservative MPs underlining a resentment that is beginning to grow about the tight circle around Badenoch. Others aides known as part of her “Quad” include Lee Rowley, a former MP and chief of staff; Rachel Maclean, a Conservative peer and her director of strategy; and Henry Newman, her deputy chief of staff.

The disclosure comes amid a fresh row about politicians taking freebies, with Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, defending her decision to take £600 of tickets to a Sabrina Carpenter concert.

A minister, Matthew Pennycook, said on Tuesday that in his view taking free hospitality was inappropriate. Downing Street said he had been speaking only on his own behalf.

Other MPs to accept hospitality recently include three MPs who accepted free hospitality at Cheltenham races, among them the shadow environment secretary, Victoria Atkins, who recorded £450 in tickets.

The Conservative Caroline Dinenage declared more than £2,000 of free Brit awards tickets, as did the Labour MP Patrick Hurley, whose tickets were worth more than £3,000, and the Conservative Nusrat Ghani, whose hospitality was worth £1,400.

Oliver Dowden, the Conservative MP and former deputy prime minister, declared a £12,000 trip to San Diego to watch a football match courtesy of the Tory donor Mohamed Mansour, a former Egyptian government minister.