Merry Taxmas, TPA

By John Prescott MP / @johnprescott

So now we know that the TaxPayers’ Alliance doesn’t mean they represent taxpayers.

It means the taxpayers pay for them!

Yes, according to today’s Guardian we’ve been subsidising this right wing organisation for years.

It’s quite clear there’s a case to answer so I’ve just sent the following letter to the Charity Commission calling for an immediate invesitgation into the TaxPayers’ Alliance and its charitable trust the Politics and Economics Research Trust.

I’ll let you know when I get a reply.

Dame Suzi Leather
Chair
Charity Commission
30 Millbank
London
SW1P 4DU

December 21 2009

Dear Dame Suzi,

I’m writing to formally request that the Charity Commission launches an investigation into the Politics and Economics Research Trust.

Today’s Guardian says the trust, which has charitable status, is being used as a vehicle to claim tax relief for donations to the TaxPayers’ Alliance, a pressure group with strong political links to the Conservative Party.

The paper states the Charity Commission’s records show the charitable arm was established as the Taxpayers’ Alliance Research Trust in 2007, before changing its name to the Politics and Economics Research Trust.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance Chief Executive Matthew Elliott is named as its main contact and the trustees include leading Taxpayers’ Alliance supporter Patrick Barbour, the founder of Reform, a free-market think-tank, which advocates lower tax and public spending.

Your Charity Commission’s guidelines on campaigning and political activity state, “an organisation will not be charitable if its purposes are political”.

Your guidelines also state that trustees must not allow the charity to be used as a vehicle for the expression of the political views of any individual trustee or staff member.

According to the Guardian, Midlands businessmen said they channelled funds through the Politics and Economics Research Trust at the request of the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

The links between the Conservatives and the TaxPayers’ Alliance are very strong. Major Tory Party donors are also funding the TPA. According to the Guardian, they include Sir Anthony Bamford, the owner of the JCB digger company, and Tony Gallagher, the owner of Gallagher Estates, both Conservative donors, who with 32 other businessmen have donated about £80,000 to the TaxPayers’ Alliance through the Midlands Industrial Council. The MIC has also made donations to the TPA’s charitable arm Politics and Economics Research Trust.

David Wall, the secretary of the Midlands Industrial Council, told the Guardian: “The charitable arm is where specific projects are being researched on specific topics.

“We donated for work they were doing predominantly on congestion charging. When there was talk of it coming to Birmingham, we asked them to look into road charging to see what the likely effect would be on the haulage industry.

“We were asked for funding to the charity, which means they can benefit from gift aid. I know that some industrialists made donations through the charitable arm.”

The Tory links to the TPA’s and the Politics and Economics Research Trust don’t stop with donations.

At their monthly meetings, speakers have included Eric Pickles, the Conservative party chairman, Liam Fox, the shadow defence secretary, and Daniel Hannan, the Tory Eurosceptic MEP who we exposed as claiming the NHS was “a 60-year mistake.”

The TaxPayers’ Alliance has also launched a campaign called “Big Brother Watch” to, and I quote, “fight injustice and protect personal liberties.” According to the Guardian it is being led by David Cameron’s former Chief of Staff Alex Deane.

The purposes of the TaxPayers’s Alliance – and its charitable trust – are quite overtly political, making the Political and Economics Research Trust in clear breach of the Charity Commission’s guidelines.

I therefore call upon the Charity Commission to launch an immediate formal investigation into the Politics and Economics Research Trust and suspend its charitable status forthwith.

I look forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

John Prescott MP