Think Tank Watch

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.

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a UK-based think tank founded on 22 November 2009 by former Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson. It is registered as an educational charity and described by DeSmog as "the UK's most prominent climate science denial group". A 2015 GWPF report claimed that carbon dioxide has been "mercilessly demonised" when it is "a benefit to the planet" and should be "two or three times" its current level. The GWPF does not disclose its donors; when asked, founder Nigel Lawson said he relied on friends who "tend to be richer than the average person and much more intelligent than the average person". Confirmed funders include Neil Record and Conservative donor Michael Hintze. Its current director is Conservative peer Craig Mackinlay; its board of trustees includes Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson and Labour MP Graham Stringer.

ARC Research is the research subsidiary of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. Nigel Biggar is the Director of ARC Research, while GB News co-owner Paul Marshall is ARC Research's founder and co-funder.

Centre for a Better Britain is a think tank operating in the UK. It describes itself as "independent", but has been described by media outlets as "Reform-linked" (Politics Home, Sky News and "pro-Reform" (BBC) and was founded by Reform’s outgoing chief operating officer Jonthan Brown and funded by two friends of Farage, David Lilley and Mark Thompson.

Heartland Institute UK/Europe is the British and European wing of the US-based Heartland Institute, which has operated "at the center of climate misinformation for decades" according to independent outlet Grist. The UK/Europe branch was launched in December 2024 with Nigel Farage in attendance, and is directed by Lois Perry, a former UKIP leader. Perry has claimed to have been personally responsible for Reform's policy of abolishing net zero, saying "Do you know why they [Reform] are abolishing net zero and why that's their policy? Me." Farage spoke at a Heartland fundraising dinner in the US in September 2024 and in January 2026 a Heartland-funded lunch brought together Farage and former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The US parent organisation has been mapped by DeSmog as a central node in Donald Trump's transatlantic anti-climate network, and Perry has said the US wing is "helping to shape policy at the highest level… under Trump's administration".

Centre for Migration Control is a think tank that claims to be "at the forefront of the fight to end the system of mass migration" and is run by Robert Bates, who was a senior Reform party activist in the 2024 General Election.

CfMC previously listed on its website that it is "the trading name of Athelney Campaigns Ltd", also run by Bates.

The Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) is a free-market think tank founded in 1974 by Sir Keith Joseph and Margaret Thatcher, promoting small government and economic liberalism. It claims to be non-partisan, however it has been closely linked to the Conservative Party throughout its history. Its director Robert Colvile co-authored the 2019 Conservative manifesto. The CPS is chaired by Conservative peer Lord Michael Spencer, whose exploration company Deltic Energy was revealed by DeSmog to have been awarded new North Sea oil and gas licences; five of the think tank's board members hold financial interests in the North Sea oil and gas industry. In 2017, transparency watchdog Transparify rated the CPS as one of seven "highly opaque and deceptive think tanks in Britain that take money from hidden hands behind closed doors". In their most recent audit of OpenDemocracy's Who Funds You?, published in 2023, Centre for Policy Studies was given a D rating (rated A - E), while also being rated as "a High Influence think tank" in their audit. The CPS has supported new North Sea oil and gas drilling and fracking, and regularly published work by climate science denier and anti-renewables advocate Rupert Darwall. In 2006, then-Director Ruth Lea suggested in a letter to The Telegraph that there was no need to worry about climate change; the scientist whose research she cited denounced this as a gross misrepresentation of his work.