Matthew Elliott

Part of the Powerbase Brexit Portal.

Matthew Elliott is a leading political campaigner in the UK.

Described by the Financial Times as “one of the most formidable political strategists in Westminster”, and by the New European as "an unsung titan of the Brexit cause". He is widely seen as the chief architect behind the successful campaign for Britain to leave the EU.

Elliott is editor-at-large of Brexit Central. Since early 2017, he has also been a senior fellow at the 'hard Brexit' think tank, the Legatum Institute.

He also became a political adviser to Shore Capital in June 2017.

Political campaigner

Elliott has spent much of his career leading either deceptive or anti-democratic campaigns. He was:

Pro-Brexit

Elliott has been a key player in various eurosceptic campaigns.

Elliott is Editor-at-Large of Brexit Central. Since early 2017, he has also been a senior fellow at the 'hard Brexit' think tank, the Legatum Institute. According to the Institute, he is 'focusing on a UK-US trade deal and researching the rise of Populism abroad'.

Elliott was CEO of Vote Leave, the official Brexit campaign in the 2016 EU referendum. Elliott is described as 'the principal architect behind the historic Leave victory'.

He also founded Business for Britain in 2013, where he oversaw the publication of ‘Change, or Go: How Britain would gain influence and prosper outside an unreformed EU’, which became a key blueprint for Brexit and was serialised in the Daily Telegraph.

Anti-electoral reform

Elliott led the successful NOtoAV campaign in 2011 against reform of the UK's 'first past the post' electoral system.

Low tax 'grassroots' campaign

Elliott founded and was CEO of the TaxPayers’ Alliance from 2003 when Elliott was in his twenties and working for Conservative MEP Timothy Kirkhope. According to the Guardian Elliott had been impressed by Republican grassroots campaigns to cut tax and spending he had seen in America – particularly the work of Grover Norquist who campaigned against Hillary Clinton's healthcare plans during Bill Clinton's presidency. Elliott argued:'Up until that point Britain didn't need a taxpayers' group because we had the Conservatives, but then they stopped talking about it and so I saw a niche'. Elliott won the Atlas Templeton Freedom Award for ‘The Single Income Tax’ campaign. He is former secretary of the Politics and Economics Research Trust, which funded the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

TPA Campaign against hate education in the Middle East

According to the Guardian it was Elliott's 'pro-Israel stance' and 'the perception that British taxpayers' money was being misused to subsidise the publication of incendiary schoolbooks' in the Middle East that led to the Taxpayers' Alliance's campaign against hate education. It argued that the campaign 'stemmed from Elliott's personal concern about incitement of hatred towards Jewish people in the Middle East' but diluted 'the idea that this is an alliance of ordinary taxpayers'.

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Affiliations

Legatum Institute - Senior fellow | No2AV | Business for Britain | TaxPayers' Alliance - Chief Executive | Hayek Society (LSE) | European Foundation - Advisory Council | Big Brother Watch | Westminster Foundation | Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturers & Commerce - Fellow | Freedom Week - Advisory Council | Young Britons' Foundation - Advisory Council | New Culture Forum - Advisory Committee | Politics and Economics Research Trust | The Business

He was married to Florence Heath. In 2014 he became engaged to American Sarah Smith, Vice Chair of Republicans Overseas UK.