Mark James Littlewood (born 28 April 1972) is a former director of the right wing think tankInstitute of Economic Affairs, which is registered as a charity. Prior to that he was thechief press spokesman for theLiberal Democrats and thePro-Euro Conservative Party[1] Having previously been in favour of deeperEuropean integration, Littlewood later adopted aeurosceptic position and advocated votingLeave in the 2016referendum on Membership of the European Union.[2]
When director of the IEA, Littlewood was recorded offering to foreign donors backroom access to British government ministers and civil servants. His activities resulted in an investigation of the IEA by theCharity Commission for England and Wales, and questions raised in the press about the organisation's dubious charity status.
Littlewood attendedThe Forest School inWinnersh in theBorough of Wokingham, then in the county ofBerkshire. He studiedphilosophy, politics and economics atBalliol College, Oxford, from 1990 to 1993, and was a member of the Oxford Reform Club where he first metLiz Truss.[3] He was President of the UK branch of the Young European Federalists in 1996.[2]
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Littlewood's first job was working for the European Movement,[2] and he was campaigns director ofLiberty from June 2001 to April 2004. While onsabbatical in 2004, he became the chief spokesperson of the campaign groupNO2ID.[4]
Littlewood was appointed head of media for the Liberal Democrats in December 2004. He resigned from the Liberal Democrat position in May 2007, after saying that the introduction ofproportional representation should not be a deal-breaker when negotiating for Liberal Democrat involvement in a coalition.[5] He was the director of Liberal Vision from 2008 to 2009, aclassical liberal group within the Liberal Democrats, before taking up the directorship of the free market think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs in December 2009. Since taking up this role, Littlewood has appeared several times as a panelist on the BBC'sQuestion Time.
Littlewood has spoken extensively against regulation oftobacco producing multinationals on behalf of the IEA, who receive long-term funding fromBritish American Tobacco,Japan Tobacco International,Imperial Tobacco and from the cigarette manufacturerPhilip Morris International. Littlewood was accused of a "clear conflict of interest" by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health, which stated that he "clearly has a pro-tobacco agenda", while Jean King ofCancer Research UK stated that "for any organisation [such as the IEA] to promote a report saying that plain [cigarette] packaging can't and won't work without making clear that the authors are tobacco industry apologists is unacceptable".[6]
In October 2017, Littlewood was listed as the 45th most influential person on the British right by the broadcaster and former Conservative Party candidateIain Dale,[7] up one place on his position in Dale's 2016 ranking ofright-wing figures.[8] He rose to 38th in the 2018 list.[9]
In 2018, Littlewood was recorded telling an undercover reporter that the Institute of Economic Affairs is in the 'Brexit-influencing game', offering potential US donors access to government ministers and civil servants, as it raises cash for research to support the free-trade deals demanded by hardline Brexiteers. Littlewood has been further cited byThe Guardian to say that he has "absolutely no problem with people who have business interests, us facilitating those"[10] An investigation byUnearthed has come to find out that the IEA has been working with US donors to capitalise on the opportunity presented by Brexit to alter the rules and regulations that determine how products in the UK are being consumed.[11]
In 2019, the IEA received a formal warning from theCharity Commission for England and Wales for political campaigning unrelated to its published purpose of furthering education, after it campaigned based on its hard Brexit proposal report. The IEA was required to have its reports agreed by trustees before publication.[12]
Littlewood was reported to have been considered for a peerage inLiz Truss'sResignation Honours,[13][14] but was not included on the list published in December 2023.[15]
Littlewood announced that he was stepping down from his position as Director General of the IEA in August 2023.[16]
As of February 2024[update], Littlewood was the director ofPopular Conservatism, a faction within the Conservative Party.[17]
