Globalisation:Taxpayers' Alliance: Funding
Funding
Since the Taxpayers Alliance was launched six years ago, it has become the most influential pressure groups in the country and yet it refuses to publish details of its benefactors and how it manages to pay for its £1 million a year operation. An investigation by the Guardian has determined that it is funded largely from wealthy donors, many of whom are prominent supporters of the Conservative party. The Midlands Industrial Council for example, which has donated £1.5m to the Conservatives since 2003, said it has given the Taxpayers Alliance around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies. [1]
Tony Gallagher, owner of Gallagher UK, a property company that gave the Conservatives £250,000 in 2007, is also a member of the Midlands Industrial Council. Gallagher Developments owns land with planning consent for six million square feet of commercial development, and an investment portfolio of around 2.7 million square feet of retail parks throughout the country. Gallagher UK therefore continues to be one of the most successful privately-owned commercial and residential property development and investment companies in the UK, with net assets valued at around £450 million. [2]
Another benefactor is Christopher Kelly who owns the international haulage firm Keltruck. [3] He was a member of the Conservative Party's Midlands Regional Finance Board, the West Midlands Council of Business for Sterling (part of the no campaign against the euro) and the Business Council of Vote No (part of the no campaign against the European Constitution). Kelly is also a past member of the Institute of Directors (IoD) and has represented Keltruck within the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). [4]
Sir Anthony Bamford, the JCB tycoon, whose family and company have donated more than £1m to the Conservatives, has, according to a spokesman, also helped fund the Taxpayers Alliance. [5] Bamford has also made smaller gifts of more than £80,000 in his own name to the Conservative Party and donations by JCB Research filed with the Electoral Commission include £175,000 towards the cost of private flights for members of the Shadow Cabinet. [6] In 2004 he stepped down as managing director and handed over daily operations to his chief executive, John Patterson, however he still remains as chairman and the business is valued at about £1.8 billion. Sales at the Staffordshire firm rose 28% to £2.25 billion in 2007 and in 2008 JCB was ranked 34 in the Times Rich List and was worth £1,950 million [7]
Malcolm McAlpine, a director of Sir Robert McAlpine, the construction firm building London's Olympic stadium, has also given an undisclosed amount to the Taxpayers Alliance. [8] Sir Robert McAlpine construction firm also delivers a wide variety of projects through the Government’s PFI, PPP and BSF programmes across the health, education, transport and defence sectors. [9] According to Compass the Government's has wasted spending through its infatuation with the private sector. Recipients of this spending include Taxpayers Alliance supporters such as Malcolm McAlpine, who is Director of private finance initiative provider Sir Robert McAlpine. [10]
David Alberto, co-owner of serviced office company Avanta, is also a supporter of the Taxpayers Alliance and donated a suite in Westminster worth £100,000 a year to Matthew Elliott Chief Executive of the Taxpayers Alliance and his 14 staff explaining that this was due to his opposition against the level of tax on businesses. [11] In the UK it currently manages more than 630,000 sq ft of office space in prime locations in London, the Thames Valley, Manchester and Edinburgh. It also has business centres in New Delhi, and a further two centres in Mumbai. Avanta also has connections with Think London, which is a private-public partnership dealing with foreign direct investment agency for London. Think London’s experts work with government and the business community to help companies access the best people, places and opportunities in the city. Their principal funding partners are the London Development Agency (LDA). [12] Alberto also has an offshore family trust but has said that 90% of his wealth is in the UK, where he pays tax. [13]
Other businessmen named by the Taxpayers Alliance as supporters, include spread betting tycoon Stuart Wheeler who gave £5m to the Conservatives before he endorsed the UK Independence party; Sir Rocco Forte, the hotelier; and Sir John Craven, chairman of mining group Lonmin. [14] Wheeler, Forte and Craven, as well as Chris Kelly and Malcolm McAlpine, are also associated with Global Vision [15] which was launched in March 2007 by Lord Blackwell and Ruth Lea who set out to create a campaign which would offer an alternative to the existing polarised choices of the full European project or pulling out and breaking all ties with Europe altogether.[16]
Funding has soared then from £67,457 in 2005 to more than £1m and the number of supporters has increased 60% this year as a result of the combined effect of the recession and the MPs' expenses scandal. The questions its critics ask therefore is whether it really is an alliance of ordinary taxpayers, and how close it is to the Tory party hierarchy? According to some Labour figures such as MP Jon Cruddas, the Taxpayers Alliance is a Tory front operation run by big powerful business interests who want to resist from paying tax by poisoning the well of public debate around the issue. [17]
Investigations by The Charity Commission have suggested that the Tax Payers Aliance (TPA) have gained funding from 'The Politics and Economics Trust,' a charity it runs seperately from the TPA. [18] The Guardian have claimed that the TPA may have used the charity they are linked with to gain tax relief and Gift Aid usually used for good causes, for political research. The alliance is able, through the charity it set up, to gain subsidies of up to 40% of the donation of an individual. [19] In order to do this, it is claimed that the TPA asked buisness men to fund the alliance through the trust. Under guidelines of the Charity Commission organisations cannot be both charitable and politically motivated.
Cheif Executive of the TPA, Michael Elliot, states that the grants obtained through the Politics and Economics Research Trust have funded research which has been looked at with an open mind. He states that none of the grants have gone to any political activity. However, John Prescott, former deputy PM, claims that the TPA are exploitive rather than representative and he has written to the Charity Commission to demand that they suspend the TPA's status as a charity. [20]
Notes
- ↑ Robert Booth Who is behind the Taxpayers' Alliance? Guardian, Friday 9 October 2009 23.18 BST Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ ”[1]” Birmingham Post, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth”[2]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ ”[3]” Keltruck Limited, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth”[4]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Tom Baldwin”[5]” The Times, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ ”[6]” Sunday Times, TLS, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth “[7]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ “[8]” Sir Robert McAlpine, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Clifford Singer “[9]”Compass, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth”[10]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ “[11]” Think London, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth”[12]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth”[13]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ “[14]” Global Vision, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ “[15]” Global Vision, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Robert Booth”[16]” Guardian, Accessed 22 October 2010
- ↑ Paul JumpTax Payers Alliance Denies 'political research claims'Third Sector Accessed 10 November 2010
- ↑ Tory tax allies 'subsidised' by the taxpayerGuardian, Accessed 6 November 2010
- ↑ Taxpayers' Alliance charitable arm under tax investigationGuardian, Accessed 6 November 2010
