Mark Littlewood

Mark Littlewood is a libertarian political commentator and director of Popular Conservatism ("PopCon"), which he co-founded with Liz Truss in February 2024. He studied at Oxford University alongside Truss, whom he described as an "old friend" and predicted would be "the most radical British prime minister in a century". He was Director General of the IEA from 2009 to 2023, during which time he was secretly recorded offering US donors access to UK ministers in exchange for donations of £35,000. He sits on the Advisory Council of the Free Speech Union. During his time at the IEA, Littlewood campaigned against plain cigarette packaging and spoke regularly at Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum events; the IEA received funding from British American Tobacco during his tenure, while his BBC appearances on smoking were criticised for failing to disclose the IEA's tobacco industry funding. At the PopCon launch, Littlewood attacked the Climate Change Committee and called net zero "almost certainly unachievable". Truss subsequently attempted to nominate him for a peerage on her resignation honours list. As of September 2026, Littlewood was hosting interviews at Reform UK's annual conference.