Who’s behind – and what drives – Legatum?
Q What is the Legatum Institute?
A It is a mysterious Mayfair-based think-tank which has become a hot house for Eurosceptic ‘hard’ Brexit ideas.
Q Who funds it?
A The vast bulk – nearly 90 per cent – of its £4 million-a-year income comes from the Legatum Foundation; this was spun out of the Legatum Group created by tycoon Christopher Chandler a decade ago after splitting the fortune he made in emerging markets with brother Richard.
Q What is the Institute’s purpose?
A ‘Legatum’ means legacy: it says it is focused on ‘tackling the major challenges of our generation’. Brexit is certainly that.
Q How did it influence the Boris-Gove letter?
A Shanker Singham, Legatum’s director of economic policy, secretly helped to draw up the ‘hard’ Brexit trade policies advocated by Gove and Johnson – including preparing for a no-deal Brexit.
Q What is its input on Brexit?
A Legatum’s experts appear to have untrammelled access to Ministers: and in the case of Crawford Falconer have supplied the Government with its senior trade negotiator.
Q Has the institute done anything wrong?
A Civil servants resent the fact that Mr Gove and Mr Johnson appear to be using it as a ‘parallel Whitehall’. But it has not broken any rules.