‘Tory’ charity abandons ‘Reagan-Thatcher partnership’ but more serious concerns remain

By Stephen Newton

The Atlantic Bridge, a charitable think-tank established by Tory defence spokesman Liam Fox has dropped its ‘simple aim of “Strengthening the Special Relationship” exemplified by the Reagan-Thatcher partnership of the 1980s,’ in the face of a Charity Commission investigation into allegations that it supports the Conservative Party. The pledge has also been removed from the website of its sister US charity, Atlantic Bridge Inc.

With Margaret Thatcher as its honorary patron, the Atlantic Bridge includes on its advisory board shadow chancellor George Osbourne, former Tory leader and shadow foreign secretary William Hague, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling and two other shadow cabinet members. Another shadow minister, a hereditary Conservative peer and a backbench Tory MP complete the UK line-up.

As previously reported on LabourList the charity’s main activity appears to be the sponsorship of predominantly private events at which senior Conservatives – including shadow cabinet ministers – and their US allies may bond behind closed doors. It has neither commissioned nor published any research since its establishment in 1997.

While the Charity Commission’s investigation is ongoing, the commission has confirmed that it has supplied the Atlantic Bridge with bespoke and confidential guidance – guidance it intends to keep secret – to help the charity bring itself into compliance with the law. This will ring alarm bells with commission watchers who have become increasingly worried that the Charity Commission has become so concerned for the reputations of those it regulates that it is putting their interests ahead of those of the public.

Louise Ferguson of the Open Rights Group recently criticised the commission after she was forced to complain to the Information Commission about lack of access to a £1.2m report of an investigation into the evangelical charity Kingsway International Christian Centre. The commission had systematically removed reports from its website that it thought might have a “negative impact on charities’ reputations”.

The head of the commission’s compliance division, Michelle Russell, has boasted of reducing the number of statutory inquiries the commission undertakes from hundreds each year to just 24. She has achieved this by downgrading complaints to relatively informal Regulatory Compliance cases. Further evidence that Michelle Russell’s new doctrine is putting the interests of charities before the public, came in a commission response to a freedom of information request for guidance offered to the Taxpayers Alliance Research Trust, which claims the commission urged it to change its name.

The commission has consistently dodged this question, pointing out that the name was always a matter for the charity’s trustees. However, it does admit to providing other guidance to help the TPA register its charity. In urging a name change, the commission would have gone beyond the provision of regulatory guidance and into the realm of helping the TPA to manage public perceptions.

The Atlantic Bridge has already benefited from the Russell doctrine of putting charities’ reputations ahead of the public interest. The investigation of more serious allegations, including its offer to reward donors with trips to the USA, now depend for their success on the active co-operation of the Atlantic Bridge itself.

While Tory officials refused to speak to the Electoral Commission’s Ashcroft inquiry, Michelle Russell appears confident that the Atlantic Bridge will voluntarily provide the commission with all it needs to complete its investigation. This includes ensuring that nobody who attended an Atlantic Bridge event received a benefit from the organisation in return for a donation, that Tory MPs attending a dinner with a Fox News film critic were receiving a politically neutral education, and that William Hague did not benefit from an event held in New York to “celebrate his latest literary achievement”.

Let’s hope she’s right.