Members of the House of Lords, an MEP and a lobbyist from a dark money-funded think tank have all been part of a ‘senior’ circle of the influential pro-Brexit European Research Group, the UK government has been forced to reveal to openDemocracy today.
The ERG has become one of the most influential groups in British politics. The Eurosceptic outfit headed by Jacob Rees-Mogg has opposed Theresa May’s Withdrawal Bill and attempted to depose the prime minister as Conservative leader.
Despite receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in public money, the ERG refuses to publish a list of members. But last month the Information Commissioner ruled that the Department for Exiting the European Union had to release details of the recipients of a July 2017 email in which then-Brexit minister Steve Baker offered to brief “a smaller more senior group” within the ERG on a key piece of government Brexit legislation.
