Legatum Institute
The Legatum Institute is a pro-Brexit think tank based in London, UK, headed by Philippa, Baroness Stroud, a Conservative member of the House of Lords. Its stated aim is to advance the education of the public in national and international political, social and economic policy. The Institute has over forty donors including the Legatum Foundation. It has been called "arguably the most influential think tank in Britain pushing its free market pro-Brexit vision and enjoying privileged access to media and ministers" but it has attracted controversy as a result of its opaque, offshore funding. History, operations  and funding. The Legatum Institute was founded in 2007, funded by the Dubai-based Legatum Group under its owner Christopher Chandler, a businessman and hedge fund owner. Chandler and his brother, Richard, made their money in Russia in the 90s/2000s and at one time had a 4% stake in the Russian state-owned company, Gazprom. The Institute is a beneficiary of his family foundation, Legatum Foundation. The foundation is registered in Bermuda and controlled by a company in the Cayman Islands. In 2018, it was criticised by the Charity Commission for breaching its charitable objectives in publishing a partial and  biased account of the benefits of free trade post-Brexit. It was closely aligned with the Vote Leave campaign giving fellowships to the campaign's chair, Gisela Stuart, and its CEO, Matthew Elliott. In 2017, it set up a "Special Trade Commission" headed by Shanker Singham, who became a prominent pro-Brexit voice across the media. It claims to be funded by more than 40 donors. These are not listed on its site or in its financial declarations. The Institute is currently located in Mayfair. Philippa Stroud (formerly Executive Director of the Centre for Social Justice, and a Conservative Party  Peer in the House of Lords) was appointed CEO of the Legatum Institute in 2016. The Institute has been subject to controversy by way of Chandler, who in 2018 was accused of links to Russian intelligence by Bob Seeley, a Conservative MP. Seeley claimed that he and other MPs had seen French intelligence documents from 2005 suggesting he was a counterintelligence concern; Chandler and the Institute strongly disputed the allegations. Labor MP Ben Bradshaw had called for a Parliamentary investigation into the Institute's funding and support the previous year. In 2018, Chandler filed a libel lawsuit in the U.S.  District Court for the District of Columbia against a private investigator he alleges produced the information claiming to show his ties to Russian intelligence. The Legatum Institute has been given a C grade for funding transparency by Who Funds You?, a campaign which has not been actively updated since October 2019. Reports and advocacy. Current programmes and policies. The Institute currently has a number of programmes including: the global prosperity index, African prosperity, Central and Eastern European prosperity, UK prosperity, United States prosperity, Social Metrics Commission, global index of economic openness, cultural transformation, race equality commission, peace and reconciliation, courage  in journalism, global people movements and the 21st century international development. The Legatum Institute founded the 'Courage in Journalism' award in 2017 following the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia that same year. The award was created to highlight the dangers faced by journalists around the world and to support press freedom. In 2019, Jan Kuciak, a Slovakian Journalist who died in 2018 at the age of 27, was named the winner of the annual prize. In 2020, the award was given to Syrian journalist Raed al-Fares who ran Fresh Radio and was assassinated in Idlib. The panel of judges  included award-winning journalist Christina Lamb among others. In 2017, the Legatum Institute commissioned a poll by Populus, estimating the views of the general British public on the Institute's political priorities. The top priorities for respondents were: food and water; emergency services; universal healthcare; a good house; a decent well-paying job; and compulsory and free education. At the bottom were owning a car and cheap air travel. The British public: The Legatum Institute's Matthew Elliott described these views as "populist". Writing in "The Sunday Times", Will Clothier used the poll to reflect that "capitalism has delivered for  too few". Legatum Prosperity Index. The Legatum Institute publishes the annual Legatum Prosperity Index, which measures prosperity across countries by applying a combination of material wealth and life satisfaction factors. The report has been in continuous publication since its launch in 2007 and has expanded its coverage from 50 countries to 167 in 2020. In the third edition of the Prosperity Index, released in 2009, the institute ranked India 45th out of 104 countries, with other emerging markets, Brazil 41st and China 75th. The large gap between China and India's prosperity narrowed in 2017, as the Index applauded the  latter for improving governance through new laws. Global People Movements programme. The Institute also runs the Global People Movements programme, which has been working to develop data-driven solutions to the largest movement of forcibly displaced people since the Second World War. Historic programmes. At the 2015 Africa Prosperity Summit, the Legatum Institute participated as a panellist during the session on "Stoking African Innovation: Ways and Means", which focused on addressing economic and social requirements. The same year, the Institute commissioned YouGov to investigate public attitudes towards capitalism, which highlighted a nearly universal belief that the biggest corporations in the  world had become successful through cheating and at the expense of the environment. In July 2018, Legatum Institute released a report linking "anxiety, self-harm and other mental illness with high social media use among young people". The report argued that this is damaging families and young people's relationships with other adults. More widely, Legatum Institute has advocated the use of parenting courses as a useful way of embedding parental skills and values to support children, but that the take up of these courses remains low due to stigma (people relating such courses incorrectly to 'troubled families' and 'poor  parenting'), poor accessibility and lack of familiarity with the trainer's and facilitators. Other initiatives. In October 2013, the Legatum Institute co-founded the Centre for Entrepreneurs (CFE) in partnership with entrepreneur Luke Johnson. Its intention is to research and communicate the positive impact of entrepreneurs on the economy and society. The CFE took ownership of Startup Britain in 2014 and has released research on the role universities should play in entrepreneurship and the benefits of offering entrepreneurship schemes to pre-release prisoners. The Legatum Institute houses the Social Metrics Commission, founded in 2016 and chaired by its CEO Philippa  Stroud, which published a new report into UK poverty levels in September 2018. The report found that 14.4 million people were living in poverty in 2017, including 4.5 million children. On the 17th May 2019, the Department for Work and Pensions announced that it would adopt the Social Metrics Commission's methodology for measuring poverty in the UK. This was largely achieved due to the cross-party involvement and support of the new measure. Role in Brexit. The think tank has been widely characterised as influential in the Brexit debate. In July 2017, soon after the UK's EU referendum  result, Legatum Institute formed the Special Trade Commission, headed by Shanker Singham (who backed remain in the run-up to the EU referendum) and included former New Zealand Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization Crawford Falconer as a commissioner. This group provided reports looking at the UK's future trade negotiations. The Special Trade Commission's work was seen by some commentators as pushing for a "hard Brexit", although the Institute said their role was to support the referendum result and pointed out that the Institute took no public position in the lead-up to the EU  referendum. The Institute proposed using unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the Republic of Ireland – Northern Ireland border issue post-Brexit. The solution, which by the report's own admission faced issues around cost and bad weather, was criticised – the "Daily Telegraph" describing it as being "held up to ridicule". The report proposed other potential measures including re-purposing the Special EU Programmes Body and creating a special economic zone, an idea also put forward by the Republic of Ireland's main opposition party. Crawford Falconer left the Special Trade Commission to become the Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent  Secretary for the Department for International Trade in June 2016. Shanker Singham left the institute in March 2018 to take his team to the Institute of Economic Affairs and Matthew Elliott left in May 2018. In May 2018, the institute announced it would end its Brexit-related research. In June 2018 the UK’s Charity Commission said the Institute's 'Brexit Inflection Report' could be seen as seeking to achieve a "particular final outcome", something that would constitute political activity and an infringement of policy. The Institute was told to remove the report from its website. Events. The Legatum Institute  holds regular public events. In 2012 the Dalai Lama spoke at an event called "ethics for a more prosperous world". In 2015, they held an event which looked at the ownership and management of public assets. In 2018 they gathered thinkers from different perspectives and let them argue under the Chatham House Rule to promote debate. Fellows. The following people are current Fellows at the Legatum Institute: Previous Fellows have included Peter Pomerantsev, Gisela Stuart and Matthew Elliott.