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Institute for Economic Affairs loses battle over ‘hard-right lobby group’ comments

'Dark money' think tank complained after openDemocracy journalist’s LBC interview with James O’Brien

By Martin Williams
Institute for Economic Affairs loses battle over ‘hard-right lobby group’ comments
David Davis MP (left) and Jacob Rees-Mogg MP at the launch of the Institute of Economic Affairs Plan A+ Brexit research paper, in central London. | PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo
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A secretive think tank has lost a two-year legal battle over suggestions that it is a “hard-right lobby group”.

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) had complained to the UK’s broadcasting regulator, Ofcom, about an interview between LBC presenter James O’Brien and openDemocracy’s Peter Geoghegan in 2019.

The IEA - which does not declare its donors - claimed it was inaccurate and misleading to describe it as a “lobby group”, and that its representatives were “not actors of good faith” or “proper experts”.

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