Right wing, climate change-sceptic think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs continues to enjoy charitable status – which comes with significant tax benefits – despite guidelines that state charities should “engage equally with all major political parties”, and that their research must avoid presenting “biased and selective information in support of a preconceived point of view”.
On November 5, the sector’s regulation, the Charities Commission, told complainants that the IEA had turned over a new leaf, claiming it had provided evidence that “demonstrates a significant change in approach… with a push for greater transparency and political neutrality”. It added that the IEA “needs now to deliver on its plans and implement these changes, which would address… potential regulatory concerns”.
A day later, the think tank – widely blamed as the inspiration for Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, showed its new commitment to political neutrality by appointing as its new director-general Lord [David] Frost, architect of Boris Johnson’s abysmal Brexit deal and confirmed climate change denier. The Tory peer has now conveniently resigned the party’s whip in the Lords, a move that will convince few beyond the credulous Charities Commission.
