Matthew Jim Elliott

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

(born 12 February 1978) is a British

political strategist Political consulting is a form of consulting that consists primarily of advising and assisting political campaigns. Although the most important role of political consultants is arguably the development and production of mass media (largely tel ...

and

lobbyist In politics, lobbying, persuasion or interest representation is the act of lawfully attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of government officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which ...

who has served as the chief executive of a number of organisations and been involved in various referendum campaigns, including

Vote Leave Vote Leave was a campaigning organisation that supported a "Leave" vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. On 13 April 2016 it was designated by the Electoral Commission as the official campaign in favour of leav ...

. Elliott was the founder and has served as chief executive of the

TaxPayers' Alliance The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) is a pressure group in the United Kingdom which was formed in 2004 to campaign for a low-tax society. The group had about 18,000 registered supporters as of 2008 and claimed to have 55,000 by September 2010. However ...

in 2004, Big Brother Watch and

Business for Britain Business for Britain was a eurosceptic campaign group which sought a renegotiation of the relationship between the United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU). The campaign was founded in April 2013 by Matthew Elliott. History The company w ...

. He has also worked as a political strategist, acting as campaign director for the successful

NOtoAV NOtoAV was a political campaign in the United Kingdom whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote against the Alternative Vote (AV) in the referendum on 5 May 2011. NOtoAV was successful in maintaining the existing First-Past-The-Post voti ...

campaign in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum. In 2015, Elliott became the chief executive of

, the official organisation advocating for a 'leave' vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. He was described as "...one of the most successful political campaigners in Westminster today." In 2018, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' described him as a central figure in "a network of opaquely funded organisations", mostly based at

55 Tufton Street 55 Tufton Street is a four-storey Georgian-era townhouse on historic Tufton Street, in Westminster, London, owned by businessman Richard Smith. Since the 2010s the building has hosted a network of libertarian lobby groups and think tanks rela ...

, that "centre around... the TaxPayers’ Alliance – a pressure group that he founded – and Brexit Central, an anti- EU website of which e was theneditor-in-chief".

Personal life and education

Elliott was born in Leeds and attended

Leeds Grammar School Leeds Grammar School was an independent school founded 1552 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Originally a male-only school, in August 2005 it merged with Leeds Girls' High School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. The two schools physicall ...

. He graduated with a First in BSc Government from the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is a public university, public research university located in London, England and a constituent college of the federal University of London. Founded in 1895 by Fabian Society members Sidn ...

in 2000. Whilst at the LSE, he was President of the LSESU Hayek Society. Since 2014, he has been a trustee of the

Social Affairs Unit The Social Affairs Unit is a right-leaning think tank in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1980 as an offshoot of the Institute of Economic Affairs, it publishes books on a variety of social issues. Its website notes that "many SAU supporters are inc ...

, a right-leaning think-tank. Elliott has been described by the BBC as "one of the most effective lobbyists at Westminster", and in 2010 was named by ''

Total Politics ''Total Politics'' is a British political magazine described as "a lifestyle magazine for the political community". It was first published in June 2008, and is distributed freely to all MPs, MEPs, peers, political journalists, members of the S ...

'' magazine as one of the top 25 political influencers in the UK. In 2017 he was placed at Number 85 in commentator

Iain Dale Iain Campbell Dale (born 15 July 1962) is a British broadcaster, author and political commentator, and a former publisher and book retailer. He has been a blogger since 2002. In 2005, he became the first openly gay Conservative candidate to c ...

's list of 'The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right'. Elliott is married to Sarah Elliott (née Smith), Chairwoman of

Republicans Overseas Republicans Overseas (RO) is a political organization created in 2013 for United States citizens who are living outside of the United States. RO is recognized by the Republican National Committee (RNC), and by other affiliated groups, such as Co ...

UK. The couple have one daughter and live in a flat in the South London Borough of Brixton.

Career

Elliott served as press officer for the European Foundation from 2000, and political secretary to

Timothy Kirkhope Timothy John Robert Kirkhope, Baron Kirkhope of Harrogate (born 29 April 1945) is a British lawyer and politician who previously served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and the Humber for the Conservative Party. After ...

MEP from 2001.

Lobbying

In 2004, Elliott co-founded the TaxPayers' Alliance with Andrew Allum. He served as Chief executive of the organisation until 2014. In 2009, he founded the civil liberties and privacy pressure group Big Brother Watch, in response to "the prevailing climate of authoritarian and intrusive policies being pursued by the British state". In 2012, he was also a founding member of

Conservative Friends of Russia Westminster Russia Forum (WRF) was a UK-wide voluntary organisation, which aims to promote improved relations with Russia. History The forum originally launched as Conservative Friends of Russia in 2012, a political interest group for those wi ...

. According to the ''

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

'', "Elliott did attend a Conservative Friends of Russia reception in 2012 and a 10-day trip to the country, but said he had no further involvement."

Referendums

NOtoAV

In 2011, he took a sabbatical to act as Campaign Director for the NOtoAV campaign during the

2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum The United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, also known as the UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system was held on Thursday 5 May 2011 (the same date as local elections in many areas) in the United Kingdom (UK) to choose the m ...

. NOtoAV were successful in maintaining the current voting system, receiving 67.9% of the votes cast. He is credited with helping to turn public opinion against the

alternative vote Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of Ranked voting, ranked preferential Electoral system, voting method. It uses a Majority rule, majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referr ...

, from 2 to 1 in favour to 2 to 1 against. The large victory for the NOtoAV campaign led to Elliott being praised as "...one of the most successful political campaigners in Westminster today".

Tim Montgomerie Timothy Montgomerie (born 24 July 1970) is a British political activist, blogger, and columnist. He is best known as the co-founder of the Centre for Social Justice and as creator of the ConservativeHome website, which he edited from 2005 unt ...

wrote that "At the moment, he's there at the very top of centre-right campaigners in Britain...He does all the things that a successful campaigner needs to do. He has message discipline, he takes opinion research incredibly seriously, he's intelligent and works hard.'

Vote Leave

In October 2015, Elliott became the Chief executive of

, a crossparty organisation formed to campaign to leave the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

(EU). Vote Leave later became the official campaigning organisation to leave the EU, after having been awarded the status by the

Electoral Commission An election commission is a body charged with overseeing the implementation of electioneering process of any country. The formal names of election commissions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and may be styled an electoral commission, a c ...

. The organisation managed to recruit the support of a number of high-profile politicians, including Conservative MPs

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

and Michael Gove who became key figureheads. Despite a widespread belief that the Vote Leave campaign was heading for defeat, nearly 52% of those who voted, or 37% of the electorate, voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, therefore meaning that Elliott's campaign emerged victorious. Upon victory, Elliott was praised alongside Vote Leave Campaign Director,

Dominic Cummings Dominic Mckenzie Cummings (born 25 November 1971) is a British political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 24 July 2019 until Cummings resigned on 13 November 2020. From 2007 to 2014, he was a ...

, as being one of the key masterminds of the victorious campaign. In July 2018, an investigation by the UK's Electoral Commission accused Elliott's campaign of breaking UK electoral law, which Elliott denied.Kuenssberg, Laura
"Vote Leave broke electoral law, Electoral Commission expected to say"
''

The BBC ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'', London, 3 July 2018. Retrieved on 4 July 2018. In September 2018 the High Court ruled that the Electoral Commission had 'misinterpreted' the electoral law in relation to Vote Leave in advice it gave.Electoral Commission 'misinterpreted' Vote Leave expenses, court rules. Retrieved 10 September 2019
/ref>

In popular culture

Elliott was portrayed by actor John Heffernan in the HBO- and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service ...

-produced drama, '' Brexit: The Uncivil War'' (2019).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Elliott, Matthew 1978 births Living people Alumni of the London School of Economics British lobbyists British political consultants Lobbying in the United Kingdom People educated at Leeds Grammar School