The TaxPayers' Alliance (TPA) is a
pressure group
Advocacy groups, also known as interest groups, special interest groups, lobbying groups or pressure groups use various forms of advocacy in order to influence public opinion and ultimately policy. They play an important role in the develop ...
in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
which was formed in 2004 to campaign for a low-
tax
A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, or n ...
society. The group had about 18,000 registered supporters as of 2008
and claimed to have 55,000 by September 2010. However, it has been suggested that a vast majority of these supporters – who do not contribute financially or engage in campaigning – were simply signed up to a mailing list.
Questions have been raised about the funding of the organisation and there is speculation that significant contributions are received from overseas. The TPA was given the lowest possible grade for financial transparency by Who Funds You, a British project that seeks to rate and promote transparency of funding sources of think tanks. It has also been questioned whether the group has links to similar organisations 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 ...
in Westminster.
The group was founded by political strategist
Matthew Elliott, who founded Eurosceptic think tank
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 ...
as well as
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 ...
,
Big Brother Watch
Big Brother Watch is a non-profit non-party British civil liberties and privacy campaigning organisation. It was launched in 2009 by founding director Alex Deane to campaign against state surveillance and threats to civil liberties. It was fou ...
and the
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 during the
2011 Alternative Vote referendum. In 2015, Elliot was appointed chief executive of the
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 leavi ...
campaign to promote a
British withdrawal from the European Union
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or ...
.
History
The TPA was founded in 2004 by a group of "libertarian"
Conservatives
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...
, frustrated by what they saw as the party's decision to ditch its traditional tax-cutting stance."
['']BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
'', 3 March 2008
The campaign group: Taxpayers' Alliance
/ref> At the time, the Conservatives felt the need to match the Labour Party's spending plans, and the TPA aimed to represent those "who want to have lower taxes and lower spending".[ The stated attraction for donors is the TPA's ability to "fly kites" for policy ideas which the Conservatives may then formally adopt.][
The TPA's campaigning approach focussed on the media, relying in part on the reduction in journalists' investigation budgets. It aims to shape public opinion through the media by packaging its research "into brief, media-friendly research papers, complete with an eye-catching headline figure to give reporters a ready-made "top line"."][ Its research is often based on "using the government's own data and Freedom of Information requests to winkle out examples of public sector waste".][
The TPA's income from donations rose from around £68,000 in 2005 to around £1m in 2009.]
In September 2010, it was reported that the TaxPayers' Alliance was organising an event sponsored by several American lobbyists and groups involved in the Tea Party movement
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009. Members of the movement called for lower taxes and for a reduction of the national debt and federal budget defic ...
, including the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the Cato Institute
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...
and the Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation (abbreviated to Heritage) is an American conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C. that is primarily geared toward public policy. The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presiden ...
. The Alliance has also sought advice from the Tea Party leadership, with Matthew Elliott stating in September 2010: "We need to learn from our European colleagues and the Tea Party movement in the US. It will be fascinating to see whether it will transfer to the UK. Will there be the same sort of uprising?"
Overview
Media exposure
In 2009, the TaxPayers' Alliance was mentioned 29 times by ''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 ...
'', was quoted in 517 ''Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' articles, 317 times in '' The Sun'' – including once by a shirtless model on Page Three
Page 3, or Page Three, was a British newspaper convention of publishing a large image of a topless female glamour model (known as a Page 3 girl) on the third page of mainstream red-top tabloids. '' The Sun'' introduced the feature, publishing ...
.
Party affiliation
The TaxPayers' Alliance is not officially affiliated with any political party. It has been accused of being a Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
"front" by Labour MP Jon Cruddas
Jonathan Cruddas (born 7 April 1962) is a British Labour Party politician who has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dagenham and Rainham since 2010, and formerly for Dagenham between 2001 and 2010.
A graduate of the University of Warw ...
. Polly Toynbee
Mary Louisa "Polly" Toynbee (; born 27 December 1946) is a British journalist and writer. She has been a columnist for ''The Guardian'' newspaper since 1998.
She is a social democrat and was a candidate for the Social Democratic Party in the 19 ...
in ''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 ...
'' and Kevin Maguire in ''The Daily Mirror
''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 ...
'' have also levelled this charge, although the group's leadership has denied it.
When Nick Ferrari
Nicolo Ferrari (born 31 January 1959) is a British host, television presenter and broadcast journalist.
He is best known as the host of the weekday breakfast show on the London-based radio station LBC, with 1.5 million weekly listeners. He al ...
asked TPA's campaign manager Susie Squire whether she was "secretly Conservative", she rejected the accusation as "outrageous", saying the organisation was "totally independent". In 2010, Squire became a special adviser to the Conservative Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The secretary of state for work and pensions, also referred to as the work and pensions secretary, is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for the business of the Department for Work and P ...
, Iain Duncan Smith
Sir George Iain Duncan Smith (born George Ian Duncan Smith; 9 April 1954), often referred to by his initials IDS, is a British politician who served as Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003. He was S ...
, before going on to become head of press for the Conservative party. Squire subsequently worked as David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
's press secretary in 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street in London, also known colloquially in the United Kingdom as Number 10, is the official residence and executive office of the first lord of the treasury, usually, by convention, the prime minister of the United Kingdom. Along wi ...
.
Funding
The Taxpayers' Alliance is constituted as a private company limited by guarantee
In British, Australian, Bermudian, Hong Kong and Irish company law (and previously New Zealand), a company limited by guarantee (CLG) is a type of corporation used primarily (but not exclusively) for non-profit organisations that require legal pe ...
in the UK - number 04873888. As a small company, it is exempt from audit which means that it meets two of the following criteria:
*annual turnover of £6.5 million or less
*balance sheet total of £3.26 million or less
*fewer than 50 employees.
The alliance has one office – one in London. Its website said that, in March 2009, it employed 13 members of staff, and has since expanded to 19 members of staff as of November 2018.
Donations
Sixty per cent of donations come from individuals or groups giving more than £5,000. The Midlands Industrial Council
The Midlands Industrial Council is a British group of wealthy businessmen who help to fund the Conservative Party. According to the '' Sunday Times'', they are one of the Party's 'most important financial backers'.
As well as the Conservative Part ...
, which has donated £1.5m to the Conservatives since 2003, said it has given around £80,000 on behalf of 32 owners of private companies. David Alberto, co-owner of serviced office company Avanta, has donated a suite in Westminster worth £100,000 a year, because he opposes the level of tax on businesses. from 2013–2018, it received at least £223,300 from US-based donors including $100,000 originating from a religious trust incorporated in the Bahamas
Construction magnate Malcolm McAlpine and a spokesman for JCB tycoon Sir Anthony Bamford have said they also helped fund the TPA.
The group has been accused of hypocrisy and possible illegality after it was revealed that it had been claiming tax relief on donations received from wealthy backers, which were intended for the purposes of political research.
In November 2022, the funding transparency website Who Funds You?
Who Funds You? is a project that rates and promotes transparency of funding sources of think tanks. The project scored think tanks according to four criteria, namely whether the organisation discloses its income, whether it publishes financial de ...
gave the group an E grade, the lowest transparency rating (rating goes from A to E).
Campaigns, issues and publications
MPs' expenses
The Alliance has called for more accountability and transparency in Parliament. The Alliance has also written to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner to request an investigation into the expenses of Michael Martin, the then Speaker of the House of Commons Speaker of the House of Commons is a political leadership position found in countries that have a House of Commons, where the membership of the body elects a speaker to lead its proceedings.
Systems that have such a position include:
* Speaker of ...
. They have not, however, argued for commensurate levels of accountability from pressure groups that receive commercial funding, and critics have argued that they are in favour of transparency only from people who are elected, as opposed to transparency for organisations that conduct political campaigning for commercial ends.
Criticisms and controversy
An investigation by Tim Horton, research director of the centre-left Fabian Society
The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
, claimed the group is "fundamental to the Conservatives' political strategy", which he said was to destroy public confidence in politicians' ability to deliver public services, thereby paving the way for cuts. "There is something deeply dishonest about their campaigns on government waste," he said. "Their aim isn't to make public spending work better, but to slash it dramatically. Yet none of them will campaign on their true vision of society: fewer public services. At least Thatcher was honest about the deal: less 'public' means you go private."
''Guardian'' columnist Owen Jones
Owen Jones (born 8 August 1984) is a British newspaper columnist, political commentator, journalist, author, and left-wing activist. He writes a column for ''The Guardian'' and contributes to the ''New Statesman'' and ''Tribune.'' He has two w ...
criticised the Taxpayers' Alliance in his 2014 book '' The Establishment: And how they get away with it'', saying, "The TaxPayers' Alliance is a right-wing organization, funded by conservative businesspeople and staffed with free-market ideologues. And yet it presents itself as though it were simply the voice of the taxpayer. After all, 'alliance' itself implies some sort of broad coalition. From its early days, the Alliance's pronouncements were invoked by news outlets more or less as the impartial mouthpiece of the hardworking taxpayer."
In Scotland, the Taxpayers' Alliance is opposed to public spending on the Gaelic language, and has been accused of feeding the press with misinformation to give the false impression that this spending is higher and more frivolous than it actually is.
Tax investigation of charitable arm
The charitable arm of the Taxpayers' Alliance — the Politics and Economics Research Trust — is under investigation by regulators following allegations that the group may have used the trust to gain tax relief for donations intended to fund political research.
Revelations by ''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 ...
'' newspaper in 2009 resulted in the UK's Charity Commission
, type = Non-ministerial government department
, seal =
, seal_caption =
, logo = Charity Commission for England and Wales logo.svg
, logo_caption =
, formed =
, preceding1 =
, ...
opening a regulatory compliance case into the Trust. It was reported in December of the same year that the alliance requested certain of its donors — identified as "private businessman" located in the English Midlands
The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the Ind ...
- to channel funds through the trust for research into policies which might potentially damage their commercial interests. This move allegedly allowed the Alliance to receive tax relief on the donations; Richard Murphy, a campaigner and tax accountant, has stated that the move potentially breached charity law, as UK commission guidelines state that organisations may not be charitable if they have political purposes.
A spokesman for the Charity Commission was quoted as saying that the "scope of the investigation is to address the allegations relating to the charity's relationship with the Taxpayers' Alliance"; such cases are opened when "available information indicates misconduct or mismanagement has occurred" or otherwise when actions "may have been improper".
John Prescott
John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott (born 31 May 1938) is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he w ...
, former UK Deputy Prime Minister
A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...
, stated that the Charity Commission's announcement of an investigation showed the Taxpayers' Alliance was "exploiting the taxpayer rather than protecting their interests as they claim to do". He also wrote to Dame Suzi Leather, the Commission's chairwoman, requesting that the Alliance's charitable status be immediately suspended; he has in the past called the Alliance "a Conservative Party front".
According to another report, Americans for Prosperity
Americans for Prosperity (AFP), founded in 2004, is a libertarian conservative political advocacy group in the United States funded by Charles Koch and formerly his brother David. As the Koch brothers' primary political advocacy group, it is one ...
, another Tea Party
A tea party is a social gathering event held in the afternoon. For centuries, many societies have cherished drinking tea with a company at noon. Tea parties are considered for formal business meetings, social celebrations or just as an afternoon ...
group which claims to have 1.5m activists and is headed by oil billionaires, Koch brothers of Koch Industries
Koch Industries, Inc. ( ) is an American privately held multinational conglomerate corporation based in Wichita, Kansas and is the second-largest privately held company in the United States, after Cargill. Its subsidiaries are involved in th ...
, was also represented at the London conference, and helped fund it.
Illegal overspending, illegal dismissal and vilification, concealment of funding
In 2018, the TaxPayers' Alliance conceded that it illegally vilified and sacked the whistleblower Shahmir Sanni, on the BBC and on the website "Brexit Central", for revealing unlawful overspending in the Brexit referendum campaign. Elliott had called Sanni a "Walter Mitty fantasist" and claimed that Sanni was guilty of "completely lying". The Alliance also did not contest the statement that they are responsible for Elliott's Brexit Central website and that they coordinated their actions with Downing Street and with nine "linked" rightwing "thinktanks" that operate in and around offices at 55 Tufton Street in Westminster. The network includes the Adam Smith Institute
The Adam Smith Institute (ASI) is a neoliberal UK-based think tank and lobbying group, named after Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher and classical economist. The libertarian label was officially changed to neoliberal on 10 October 201 ...
, the Centre for Policy Studies
The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a think tank and pressure group in the United Kingdom. Its goal is to promote coherent and practical policies based on its founding principles of: free markets, "small state," low tax, national independe ...
, the Institute of Economic Affairs
The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a right-wing pressure group and think tank registered as a UK charity Associated with the New Right, the IEA describes itself as an "educational research institute", and says that it seeks to "further t ...
and Leave Means Leave
Leave Means Leave was a pro-Brexit, Eurosceptic political pressure group organisation that campaigned and lobbied for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union following the 'Leave' result of the EU referendum on 23 June 2016. The campai ...
. A barrister commented that "It is incredibly unusual for a respondent to make a complete concession on liability as the respondent has here. To wave a white flag to avoid disclosing documents and giving evidence in court is really unusual. They conceded everything. How does an ostensibly private company come to be working with Downing Street? What is their relationship? Who are their funders?"
Bibliography
;Books
*Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham, ''The Bumper Book of Government Waste'', 2006, Harriman House
*Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham, ''The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008: Brown’s Squandered Billions'', 2007, Harriman House
*David Craig and Matthew Elliott, ''The Great European Rip-Off: How the Corrupt, Wasteful EU is Taking Control of Our Lives'', 2009, Random House
*David Craig and Matthew Elliott, ''Fleeced!: How we've been betrayed by the politicians, bureaucrats and bankers - and how much they've cost us'', 2009, Constable & Robinson
Constable & Robinson Ltd. is an imprint of Little, Brown which publishes fiction and non-fiction books and ebooks.
Founded in Edinburgh in 1795 by Archibald Constable as Constable & Co., and by Nick Robinson as Robinson Publishing Ltd in 1983, ...
*Matthew Sinclair, ''How to Cut Public Spending: (and Still Win an Election)'', 2010, Biteback
;Pamphlets
*Matthew Elliott, Matthew Sinclair & Corin Taylor "How cutting corporation tax
A corporate tax, also called corporation tax or company tax, is a direct tax imposed on the income or capital of corporations or analogous legal entities. Many countries impose such taxes at the national level, and a similar tax may be imposed at ...
would boost revenue", September 2008
See also
* 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 ...
References
External links
*
*''BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...
'', 3 March 2008
The campaign group: Taxpayers' Alliance
*Localgov.co.uk, 2 March 2009
LGA hits out at pension claims
Sourcewatch profile of the Taxpayers' Alliance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taxpayers' Alliance
Organizations established in 2004
Political advocacy groups in the United Kingdom
Taxpayer groups
Taxation in the United Kingdom
Private companies limited by guarantee of the United Kingdom
2004 establishments in the United Kingdom
Tufton Street