Institute of Economic Affairs

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a free-market think tank and registered educational charity founded in 1955. Its current Director General is Daniel Hannan, who took up the role in April 2026. In 2017, transparency watchdog Transparify described its funding as "highly opaque". DeSmog has reported that the IEA received hundreds of thousands of pounds from fossil fuel companies, including BP, Shell and ExxonMobil, as well as funding from Rupert Murdoch's News International. In 2018, then-Director Mark Littlewood was secretly recorded telling US donors that the IEA was in "the Brexit influencing game" and offering them access to senior ministers in exchange for donations of £35,000; leading the Charity Commission to launch two investigations into the organisation. Because the IEA is registered as an educational charity rather than a lobbying group, it is not required to disclose its clients or contacts with ministers, and benefits from associated tax advantages. The IEA has been described as close to former Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose September 2022 mini-budget, which sent the pound to an all-time low against the dollar and was criticised by the IMF, was said to have been shaped by IEA's long-standing policy positions.