A charity founded by Defence Secretary Liam Fox had to suspend business this week after a damning report by the Charity Commission found it had breached rules on political activity for seven years.
Atlantic Bridge, which promotes relations between Thatcherite Tories and American neo-conservatives, was ordered to “cease immediately” all current activities and given a year to change its programme and appoint people from more diverse backgrounds to run its “educational” activities.
The charity – highlighted in Tribune last October – closed its website within a day. The findings are a victory for Stephen Newton, a Labour activist who complained it was breaking charity law.
The organisation boasts four Cabinet ministers – George Osborne, William Hague, Michael Gove and Liam Fox – and one minister of state, Chris Grayling, on its board of advis0rs. Its trustees include lobbyist Andrew Dunlop, a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, and Tory donor and hedge fund millionaire Michael Hintze. Baroness Thatcher is its patron.
The Charity Commission found its main activity – the promotion of a “special relationship” with the United States – could not be described as educational because it followed a narrow neo-con interpretation of Margaret Thatcher’s relationship with Ronald Reagan. The Commission concluded the charity was “promoting a policy which is closely associated with the Conservative Party”.
It also attacked the charity for not distancing itself from the views of its US sister organisation, Atlantic Bridge Inc, whose chief executive Amanda Bowman wrote that David Cameron “will be good for America and better for the special relationship”. This was seen as party political.
The report said the charity was not open about all its activities and criticised the trustees for not keeping proper records. If it fails to reform, the Commission threatens to remove its charitable status.
Mr Newton said: “The news that Atlantic Bridge is to cease its activities immediately, and will no longer award Margaret
Thatcher Medals of Freedom, is good news. However, its activities, effectively subsidised by the taxpayer, have never contributed to
its charitable objectives.”
A spokesman for Atlantic Bridge said: “We were disappointed that the Commission has concluded that both our use of the phrase ‘special relationship’ and our desire to see it strengthened and promoted must cease on the basis that by doing so we are promoting a controversial pre-determined point of
view.”
