This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.

This story [1] was originally published on OpenDemocracy.net/en/.
License: Creative Commons 4.0 - Attributions/No Derivities/
international.
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Concerns raised over ‘dark money’ funding anti-lockdown MPs
By: []
Date: None

A group of anti-lockdown MPs has been criticised for taking thousands of pounds’ worth of donations from a secretive organisation which is not listed on any official company registers.

The Recovery Alliance has been providing media and consultancy services to the COVID Recovery Group (CRG), a group of Conservative MPs that has repeatedly called for lockdown restrictions to be lifted.

The group has proven adept at grabbing news headlines, with the CRG’s Steve Baker this weekend warning Prime Minister Boris Johnson against extending COVID restrictions on 21 June.

But the group’s funding has come under scrutiny after it emerged that Baker has received nearly £30,000 in donations for the CRG, including £10,000 from a little-known group that does not have to declare its original funder.

The Recovery Alliance, which has almost no internet footprint, is an ‘unincorporated association’ – meaning that details about its finances and leaders can be kept anonymous.

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MPs and campaigners have criticised the legal loophole and called on the CRG to be more transparent about donations.

Labour MP Clive Lewis, who sits on the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, told openDemocracy that it’s “not exactly hard to see” why the CRG might want to “conceal their donations”.

“The policies they are trying to enact on behalf of anonymous donors, such as removing lockdown restrictions even when cases are rising, would have disastrous implications for public health,” he said.

The Scottish National Party’s Philippa Whitford said: “In light of the possible influence of this group on UK government decisions, it is important there should be transparency about who is funding them and therefore influencing their policy demands.”

As openDemocracy previously revealed, the Democratic Unionist Party received £435,000 ahead of the 2016 Brexit referendum routed through an obscure unincorporated association based outside Glasgow.

‘Harass the enemy’

The CRG was set up last year by Tory MPs Mark Harper and Steve Baker in resistance to lockdown measures. It has been vocal in criticising the government.

Ahead of today’s announcement that lockdown restrictions will be extended, Baker texted CRG members saying: “It is the sworn duty of all officers to try to escape. If they cannot escape, then it is their sworn duty to cause the enemy to use an inordinate number of troops to guard them, and their sworn duty to harass the enemy to the best of their ability.”

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/concerns-raised-over-dark-money-funding-anti-lockdown-mps/