Taxpayers' Alliance
The Taxpayers' Alliance (TPA) is a right-wing single-issue think tank and lobbying group advocating "lower taxes and reformed public services". On 19 September 2007, the Hayek Society, a LSE right-wing group, circulated a job description to its members for a internships at TPA.
In a March 2009 presentation TPA Chief Executive Matthew Elliott and Tim Montgomerie described IEA as part of the infrastructure of the conservative movement in Britain.[1]
Susie Squire formerly of the Stockholm Network acted as the TPA campaign manager until 2010 when she left to work as an advisor to Iain Duncan Smith.[2]
Contents
Funding
An investigation by the Guardian in 2009 found that the TPA is funded by 'wealthy donors, many of whom are prominent supporters of the Conservative party'. The investigation found that:
- 'Sixty per cent of donations come from individuals or groups giving more than £5,000. The Midlands Industrial Council, which has donated £1.5m to the Conservatives since 2003, said it has given around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies. Tony Gallagher, owner of Gallagher UK, a property company that gave the Conservatives £250,000 in 2007, is a member of the MIC, as is Christopher Kelly who owns the international haulage firm Keltruck, and Robert Edmiston who owns IM Group, a large car importer'.[3]
Independence
In December 2008 Susie Squire from the TPA was asked by Nick Ferrari on his LBC Breakfast Radio Show if the Taxpayers Alliance was 'secretly Conservative?', she responded by saying:
- I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I can’t have that – that’s outrageous! That’s just absolutely outrageous!' adding 'we’re totally independent, we talk to everyone. I mean, God, I was in Wales at the end of last week, giving evidence on MPs’ expenses to a cross-party independent panel in the Welsh Assembly. We talk to everyone who wants to talk to us. We produce research that goes out to many MPs, cross-party, that goes out to journalists. We don’t have a party preference. Yes of course we have advisors and we have a board – any think tank worth its salt does. We’ll talk to anyone.'[4]
Squire left the Taxpayers Alliance in May 2010 to work as an advisor to the Conservative Party's Iain Duncan Smith.[5]
Criticism
Conservative councillor for Ealing and Northfield Phil Taylor described his relationship with the TPA in February 2009:
- I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with the TaxPayers’ Alliance. I was involved with them in their very early days. I helped them with their initial fund raising and organising but I got disillusioned because their first publication, The Bumper Book of Government Waste, mixed up capital and revenue and different years and wasn’t really a serious analysis of waste – at least not one that was any use to anyone.[6]
Publications
- Susie Squire, Broke Britannia, The Guardian, 24-April-2009
- Taylor et al., Welfare reform in tough fiscal times, The Taxpayers Alliance, 2010
Personnel
Founders
- Andrew Allum Chairman
- Matthew Elliott Chief Executive
- Florence Heath
Staff
- Tim Aker Grassroots Coordinator
- Blair Gibbs Campaign Director
- Fiona McEvoy West Midlands Campaign Agent
- Matthew Sinclair Policy Analyst
- Corin Taylor Research Director
Academic Advisory Council
- John Blundell – Director General, Institute of Economic Affairs
- Keith Marsden – Economic Consultant, United Nations
- David B. Smith – Chief Economist, Williams de Broe
- Norman Barry – University of Buckingham
- Keith Boyfield – Keith Boyfield Associates
- Eamonn Butler – Adam Smith Institute
- Tim Congdon – Lombard Street Research
- Stephen Davies – Manchester Metropolitan University
- Kevin Dowd – University of Nottingham
- Charles Hanson – Economic Consultant
- Ruth Lea – Centre for Policy Studies
- Patrick Minford – Cardiff Business School
- Kenneth Minogue – London School of Economics
- Michael Mosbacher – Social Affairs Unit
- Dennis O'Keeffe – University of Buckingham
- Madsen Pirie – Adam Smith Institute
- Gabriel Stein – Lombard Street Research
- Elaine Sternberg – University of Leeds
- James Tooley – University of Newcastle
- Alan Walters
Volunteers
- Source[7]
Affiliations
External Resources
- Sunder Katwala, Taxpayers alliance outed as conservative partisans (surprise, sensation!), Next Left, 15 March 2009.
References, Resources and Contact
Contact
The TaxPayers' Alliance
55 Tufton Street
London, SW1P 3QL
Website: tpa.typepad.com
References
- ↑ Tim Montgomerie, The growth of Britain's conservative movement, ConservativeHome, 14 March 2009.
- ↑ Guido Fawkes, Susie Squire Slips in to Spinning at the DWP for IDS, Guido Fawkes, 27-May-2010, Accessed 25-June-2010
- ↑ Robert Booth, Who is behind the Taxpayers Alliance, The Guardian, 9-October-2009, Accessed 24-January-2011
- ↑ Newswire, Tax Payers Alliance challenged, Liberal Conspiracy, 17-December-2008, Accessed 25-June-2010
- ↑ Guido Fawkes, Susie Squire Slips in to Spinning at the DWP for IDS, Guido Fawkes, 27-May-2010, Accessed 25-June-2010
- ↑ Phil Taylor, All Those Fat Cat Teachers, Philtaylor.org.uk, 2-February-2009, Accessed 24-January-2011
- ↑ Taxpayers' Alliance Who we are, accessed 20 September 2007
