Economists for Free Trade

Background

Economists for Free Trade (EFT), formerly known as Economists for Brexit, is a coalition of economists with strong ties to Brexiteer Conservative MPs, right-leaning mainstream media and some well-known climate science deniers.¹

Numerous EFT members and advisors have links to libertarian, pro-Brexit thinktanks based in and around 55 Tufton Street and to the UK’s principal climate science denial group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

The group has advocated a complete political separation from the EU, claiming that a no deal exit from the EU could add £135bn to the British economy per year and that the UK’s poorest families will be “the biggest winners.”² ³

The EFT accused the Treasury and civil servants of misleading the public on the costs of Brexit and staying in the customs union. The group’s findings that “no deal would be better than a bad deal” contradicted all other studies on the issue according to the Independent and were criticised as “doubly misleading”.⁴ ⁵ ⁶

As of August 2020, the group’s website was still active but its activities appeared to have wound down, with its last report published in November 2019.⁷

Numerous individuals associated with the EFT now have positions within the pro-hard Brexit thinktank, the Centre for Brexit Policy (CBP) and Foundation for Independence, both established by John Longworth. Longworth, Executive Director of the CBP, and Owen Paterson, Chair of the CBP, are both Advisors to the EFT, and Edgar Miller, a Convenor and a Founding Member of the EFT is a Senior Advisor to the CBP.⁸ ⁹

Stance on Climate Change

An EFT report on issues regarding Brexit and deregulation included references to Colin Robinson’s book Climate Change Policy: Challenging the Activists, which was published by the Institute for Economic Affairs in 2008.

In the book, Robinson argues that there is uncertainty both about climate science and the policy measures required in response, and argued that the free market economy would deliver a better response to climate change than government-led regulation.¹⁰ ¹¹

Funding

Although Patrick Minford and Edgar Miller both have entries on Companies House, an entry for EFT did not appear to be available.¹² ¹³

Key People

EFT Chair Patrick Minford is a Professor of Applied Economics at Cardiff Business School. Minford is a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher and was a key architect of the controversial poll tax. Minford sits on the advisory team of the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA), is a Fellow at the Centre for Brexit Policy and is a Director of the Institute of Economic Affairs.¹⁴ ¹⁵ ¹⁶ ¹⁷ ¹⁸

EFT Convenor Edgar Miller is an American businessman and a visiting fellow at Cass Business School in London who made his fortune by investing in the US shale gas industry. Miller has been named as an early donor, fundraiser and founder of the climate science denying Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), led by former chancellor Nigel Lawson. He is a Senior Advisor at the Centre for Brexit Policy. ¹⁹ ²⁰

EFT Members

EFT Member Kevin Dowd, Professor of Finance and Economics at Durham University, is registered as an Adjunct Scholar for the Cato Institute, a libertarian thinktank based in Washington DC that has received funding from fossil fuel interests, including the Koch family.²¹ ²²

Michael Burrage
Roger Bootle
Tim Congdon
John Greenwood
Vudayagi Balasubramanyam
Andrea Hosso
Martin Howe QC
Warwick Lightfoot
Graeme Leach
Neil MacKinnon
Kent Matthews
David Paton
John Whittaker ²³

Former members of the EFT include The Sunday Telegraph’s Liam Halligan and founder of ConservativeHome Tim Montgomerie.²⁴ ²⁵

EFT Advisors

EFT Advisor Sir David Ord is co-owner of the Bristol Port Company along with Terence Mordaunt, Chairman of the climate science denial campaign group, the Global Warming Policy Foundation.²⁶

EFT Advisor and former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson was a founding member of the official Vote Leave campaign and gave the GWPF’s 2014 annual lecture, which was later revealed to be partly written by GWPF Advisor (and Paterson’s brother-in-law) Viscount Matt Ridley. Paterson also has close ties with US free-market groups that have denied mainstream climate science and lobbied against climate action, including the Heritage Foundation and the Competitive Enterprise Institute.²⁷ ²⁸ ²⁹ ³⁰

EFT Advisor Viscount Matt Ridley, is a GWPF Advisor, Conservative hereditary peer and formerly the brother-in-law of CBP Chair Owen Paterson. Ridley’s family estate includes a coal mine operated by the company Banks Group. Ridley was chairman of Northern Rock when the bank collapsed in 2007 and has frequently downplayed the seriousness of man-made climate change and criticised mainstream climate science.³¹ ³² ³³

EFT Advisor Jacob Rees-Mogg is a Conservative MP and the Leader of the House of Commons. He was also a long-time chair of the hardline Brexiteer grouping of MPs, the European Research Group. Rees Mogg has claimed “climate alarmism” is responsible for high energy prices, and that it is unrealistic for scientists to project future climate changes as meteorologists struggle to correctly predict the weather. In 2014, he was referred to the parliamentary standards watchdog for failing to disclose interests in a company with millions of pounds invested in energy companies when speaking in relevant debates.³⁴ ³⁵ ³⁶ ³⁷

EFT Advisor John Longworth is a former Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, who was suspended from the role in 2016 after making comments supportive of Brexit, breaching neutrality rules. Longworth went on to co-found the Leave Means Leave pro-Brexit pressure group with Richard Tice, who later became chairman of the Brexit Party, which has fielded many climate science denying political candidates. Longworth is Executive Director of the pro-hard-Brexit thinktank, the Centre for Brexit Policy, and Chair of the business lobby group, the Foundation for Independence.³⁸ ³⁹ ⁴⁰ ⁴¹ ⁴²

Sir John Craven
Alexander Downer
Sir James Dyson
Lord Flight
Sir Rocco Forte
Daniel Hodson
David Jones MP
John Longworth
Sir David Ord
Barnabas Reynolds⁴³

Key Deeds

September 2018

EFT Advisor and then Chair of the European Research Group of pro-Brexit MPs, Jacob Rees-Mogg, spoke at the launch of the the EFT’s “World Trade Deal” report where he promoted the EFT’s claim that a “no-deal” Brexit would boost the UK economy by £135bn a year. The event was attended by senior Brexit-supporting Conservative MPs including Boris Johnson, Steve Baker and Liam Fox. The claim came under criticism from economics and trade experts, with a professor at King’s College London describing it as “fundamentally dishonest.”⁴⁴ ⁴⁵

August 2018

EFT advisor and climate science denier Matt Ridley quoted figures from another EFT member, Michael Burrage, in his Times column to support his argument that a no-deal Brexit may benefit the UK, without declaring his own affiliation to the group.⁴⁶

June 2018

EFT published a report that claims a cliff edge Brexit and adoption of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules would be “the very best” option for the UK.⁴⁷

September 2014

EFT Convenor Edgar Miller revealed to a reporter that he was an early donor to the Global Warming Policy Foundation. When contacted by DeSmog about the claims, Miller said that he was “proud” to have donated to the group, and “would be pleased” for this to be made public.⁴⁸