Tag: Atlas Network

Millions of dollars has been raised from anonymous US donors to support British rightwing thinktanks that are among the most prominent in the Brexit debate. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), the Adam Smith Institute, Policy Exchange and the Legatum Institute have all received financial support from US backers via this route. The charitable status of the thinktanks requires them to remain non-partisan, and they all insist they have not taken a line as institutions on whether the UK should leave the EU. However, they have published or contributed to policy papers that advocate a Brexit deal that makes a clean break from European regulations. It also called for opening all services to competition, including the health service, scrapping many of the EU regulations on data protection, pharmaceuticals and food safety and chemicals, and reducing taxes. Undercover filming by Greenpeace this year recorded Michael Carnuccio, the head of an Oklahoma-based libertarian thinktank, the E Foundation, saying his organisation was planning to pour cash into the IEA. In response, the IEA said it did not recognise the sums of money being suggested by the E Foundation and it had not received any cash from US businesses in relation to its work on trade and Brexit. After the disclosures, the Charity Commission opened an inquiry into the IEA to examine concerns about its political independence. It is unclear how much of the money raised by the American entities is passed to the British thinktanks, due to the secrecy surrounding the donors. The Adam Smith Institute has raised $1.4m from American donors since 2008.