The TaxPayers Alliance - seems to have had funding from some UKIP supporters!

http://www.spinwatch.org/index.php/issues/finance-lobbying/item/219-a-closer-look-at-the-taxpayers-alliance Criticism of Nick Clegg from the TPA highlights their position on one of the Coalition government’s fault lines. Last week Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan, who featured in a TPA video in 2009,17 argued that ‘we need to get to the point where Conservative and UKIP voters can back the same candidates’.18 Hannan called for an alliance between the Conservatives and UKIP ‘modelled on the alliance between the Canadian Tories and the Reform Party’.19 The European question has put pressure on David Cameron and the Coalition - a recent poll shows that 1 in 3 Conservative voters are ready to back UKIP in the next general election.20 It is clear where the TPA stands on these issues by looking at their position as part of a network of Eurosceptic lobby groups. Most of the TPA’s research funding comes from their charitable wing the PERT. The chairman of PERT is multimillionaire Patrick Barbour who sold his Barbour Index business in 1999 for £22 million.21 Barbour has been politically active as a Eurosceptic since at least the early 1990s when he helped fund the Bruges Group, a think tank representing the Eurosceptic right of the Conservative Party.22 Barbour is also involved with a range of conservative think tanks including Reform,23 where he was one of three founders, Civitas, Global Vision24 and the Young Britons’ Foundation.25 Barbour has also given money to UKIP through Global Britain, another Eurosceptic think tank,26 Malcolm Pearson, the former leader of UKIP, also sat on PERT’s board until 2009.27 Other Eurosceptic businessmen funding the TaxPayers’ Alliance include Malcolm McAlpine who also funds Global Vision,28 Stuart Wheeler who helps fund Global Vision and UKIP,29 and Rocco Forte who was also involved in funding the Bruges Group.3031 In the aftermath of the 2010 general election the Taxpayers’ Alliance held a roundtable meeting to discuss the Conservatives return to power. Attendees included Eurosceptic think tanks Global Vision and Open Europe.32 Although the TPA claims to represent all taxpayers, such links suggest that its main interest lies in taxpayers of the Eurosceptic tycoon variety.