The Charity Commission is making inquiries into whether Atlantic Bridge – which promotes relations between senior Tories and neo-con Americans – has failed to comply with charity law as an educational organisation.
The inquiry – which falls short of the full investigation last year into links between Labour and the Smith Institute – follows a complaint from a blogger, Stephen Newton, over its activities.
He has also lodged a complaint with the Inland Revenue Service in the US against its American counterpart, Atlantic Bridge Inc, querying its tax free educational status.
It comes as the charity is to host a visit from Henry Kissinger next month in central London where it is charging £400 for a reception, lecture and dinner and £750 for a VIP ticket – they have priority seating and better tables. Kissinger is to be awarded the Margaret Thatcher Medal of Freedom on the night. She has endowed Atlantic Bridge with the award and some costs of the annual lecture.
The charity is dominated by senior Tories in David Cameron’s shadow Cabinet and Margaret Thatcher is its patron. Its chairman and founder is Liam Fox, the party’s shadow defence secretary, and it boasts four other senior shadow cabinet members on its advisory council. These are George Osborne, the shadow chancellor; William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary; Chris Grayling, the shadow home secretary and Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary.
One of its trustees is Andrew Dunlop, a former adviser to Thatcher and now a lobbyist. The executive board also includes a major Tory donor, City hedge fund millionaire, Michael Hintze.
The charity is unusual in both being registered with the Charity Commission in the UK and as a tax exempt non-profit organisation in the United States.
Its supporters in the States include Newt Gingrich and, apart from Joe Lieberman, all its key American advisers are Republican senators or congressmen. It also has strong links with the free market, right-wing Heritage Foundation, which organises some events.
The main aim of the organisation is to promote the “special relationship” between the UK and US harking back to the days of Reagan and Thatcher in the 1980s.
Stephen Newton, who lodged the complaint, said: “The charity appears to be partisan and as an educational think tank does not appear to do any research.””
A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: “A regulatory compliance case was opened on 21 August 2009 to investigate concerns relating to activities of The Atlantic Bridge Education and Research Scheme… and its connections to the Conservative Party. We are engaging with the charity to address these concerns.”
A compliance investigation would involve the Commission checking its website and talking to its officers about its work, and looking at its books.
Adam Werritty, administrator for Atlantic Bridge, said: “As our discussions are ongoing with the Charity Commission, we’re not in a position to say anything further at present.”
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