We write following the successful legal challenge against Restore Trust. Having ignored correspondence from our advisers, AWO, before proceedings were issued, it immediately folded, and agreed to pay costs when the matter came before the Court. 

Next up, our legal manager instructed AWO to write to the New Culture Forum - a Tufton Street ‘think-tank’ which rails against “the liberal establishment” and believes, or says it believes, that UK media provides no outlet for right-wing views. This will come as disappointing news to Jonathan Harmsworth, owner of the Daily Mail.

New Culture Forum’s website was processing and monitoring user data, without explaining who controlled that personal information, what was being done with it, and who it was shared with. We are all entitled to proper transparency around their personal data under the UK GDPR, and the pre-action protocol letter explained how its policies ignored people’s data rights.

Faced with the threat of action, New Culture Forum promptly folded. It agreed to replace its inadequate privacy policy, and now asks people accessing its website for consent before using cookies to track them across the internet, in accordance with legal requirements.

We’re pleased New Culture Forum has fixed its inadequate processes. Good Law Project will continue with our wider campaign, examining how dark money and the opaque 55 Tufton Street network influence our politics and institutions.

Following a complaint raised by a cross-party group of MPs working with Good Law Project, the climate change promoting ‘charity’, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), has been forced to make a Serious Incident Report to the Charity Commission. GWPF is based at 55 Tufton Street, the home of dark funding, astroturfing and opaque influence.

Charities have a responsibility to report serious incidents, where significant harm has been, or could be, caused to their beneficiaries, staff, volunteers and stakeholders. The Charity Commission is also alerted in circumstances where charities have lost money or assets, or have seen their property or reputation damaged.

Back in October, Caroline Lucas MP, Layla Moran MP and Clive Lewis MP wrote to the Charity Commission to highlight potential breaches of charity law by GWPF. These included its spending of hundreds of thousands of pounds on one-sided ‘research’, and its financial relationship with the non-charitable subsidiary Net Zero Watch (NZW). 

In response, the Charity Commission confirmed it was reviewing the evidence submitted.

We believe the lobbying efforts of organisations who deny a climate emergency are not charitable activities and should not be subsidised with our taxes. Ensuring the GWPF is investigated is an important further step in our work to shed light on the role dark money plays in our politics and to push for transparency over who really pulls the strings of this Government.

Just last week, 55 Tufton Street-linked Restore Trust caved following a legal challenge brought by our legal manager, Ian Browne, over its use of personal data. The ‘anti-woke’ campaign group that previously and unsuccessfully attempted to infiltrate the National Trust to shut down debates on slavery and LGBTQ+ inclusivity, has now agreed to pay £16,500 towards the costs of the case.

Last year, Good Law Project launched a legal campaign to uncover the insidious network of think-tanks and lobby groups based around 55 Tufton Street. These organisations have had a disproportionate and harmful influence over our politics – and we have set out to expose who’s behind them and who’s funding them.

We have recently been looking into Restore Trust, who have unsuccessfully tried to infiltrate the National Trust and want to shut down debates on issues like slavery and LGBTQ+ inclusivity.

Working with data rights law firm, AWO, we helped to unmask who’s behind their website – a company called RT2021 Limited. One of RT2021’s directors is Neil Record, who is also the chairman of climate change denial group, Net Zero Watch, based at 55 Tufton Street, and libertarian think tank, the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA)

A common feature of the right-wing think tanks and fossil fuel lobby groups around 55 Tufton Street is their lack of transparency and misuse of people’s personal data.

Following legal action taken by Ian Browne, our Legal Manager, Restore Trust have been compelled to reveal who they are and, after beginning legal proceedings, we’ve also forced them to correct their use of data.

Restore Trust have also now agreed to settle the legal challenge, take the further remedial action sought and pay costs.

But we’re not stopping there. We are also tackling the climate change apologists and deniers at Global Warming Policy Foundation.

And Ian has now instructed the same data rights specialists, AWO, to turn their focus to The New Culture Forum – another Tufton Street right-wing think tank – who have some questionable data practices that we are keen to interrogate.

With your support, we will continue to expose the shady groups that operate from 55 Tufton Street.

We took the first formal step in legal proceedings against Restore Trust, asking for a full explanation of who is behind their website’s data analysis and targeting, and why they carry it out. They failed to respond to our letter but changed their website to reveal the operator of their site - RT2021 Limited.  

Public records show that one of RT2021’s company directors is Neil Record, who is also the chairman of climate change denial group Net Zero Watch and libertarian think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs. Despite previous denials, this confirms that Restore Trust is linked with the Tufton Street network of think tanks and pressure groups that are funded by dark money and which helped push the economic ideas behind Liz Truss’s disastrous premiership. 

Restore Trust has yet to address the breaches in data protection law we identified with AWO, a data rights agency, so we have asked our solicitors to issue proceedings against RT 2021.

 Our legal action is an important step in our work to expose the cronyism behind Tufton Street including undisclosed donors, misinformation, astro-turing, opacity and lobbying.