Why are British taxpayers funding so many left-wing think tanks?

They should be asked "WHO FUNDS YOU?"

“WHO FUNDS YOU?!” is the question the staff of Right-wing think tanks get asked whenever they appear on BBC Newsnight or similar.

People who work for organisations based at Tufton Street or nearby (for instance, the Institute of Economic Affairs) are almost guaranteed to have the words put to them, always in an accusative manner, as if Vladimir Putin had poured money into their coffers.

But having spent over a year researching political funding, I think it’s much more useful to ask the staff of Left-wing institutions “WHO FUNDS YOU?!” as they tend to be extremely well-oiled financially. In fact, the “WHO FUNDS YOU?” question is a fantastic deflection technique from those on the Left because of the amount of questionable activity in their own backyard.

In terms of funding, as well as collaborative networks, those on the Left have a huge number of advantages. As well as having captured pretty much most of the UK’s institutions (from think tanks to charities to the Civil Service), to top things off they tend to get taxpayer funding with no questions asked. For instance, the Institute for Public Policy Research received £388,000 from taxpayers between 2019 and 2023: