‘Independent Sage’ is run by Left-wing antiBrexit activists

AN “independent” group of scientists that regularly criticises the Government for not introducing tougher Covid-19 restrictions is run by a body that boasted last week it is “good at creating havoc” and was founded by an activist journalist accused of peddling conspiracy theories about Brexit.

The Citizens, founded by Carole Cadwalladr, describes itself as “founders and producers” of Independent Sage, a committee of academics that claims to “provide independent scientific advice”. It is also currently bringing legal action over ministers’ use of WhatsApp to communicate about official business, and gathering evidence of “the privatisation of the NHS”.

In the body’s newsletter, Ms Cadwalladr states it has “been running a handful of experimental projects in stealth mode”, including Independent Sage.

An NHS doctor said there was “something quite disingenuous about a supposedly independent scientific group being formed by what appears to be a political organisation”. The doctor added: “If you want to lobby against a government, fine, but don’t also claim to be an objective, independent voice.”

Independent Sage was launched in May 2019 by former chief scientific adviser Sir David King because of a lack of “openness and transparency” by the Sage committee. The panel included academics linked to Labour, a race adviser who described Boris Johnson’s administration as “far Right” and the author of a book that claims the NHS is being privatised by stealth.

Ms Cadwalladr initially founded The Citizens in 2019 to “support further investigation” into alleged offences committed during the Brexit campaign – despite police investigations being dropped. It was financed using money provided by a crowdfunding for her investigations into pro-Brexit figures, including Arron Banks, the co-founder of the unofficial Leave. EU campaign, who is suing Ms Cadwalladr for libel.

Ms Cadwalladr, who carried out investigations into the role of data firm Cambridge Analytica in the Brexit campaign, has previously apologised for falsely claiming that Mr Banks had broken the law. She has been labelled a conspiracy theorist over her claims that Russia influenced the 2016 referendum.

In recent weeks, Ms Cadwalladr updated her Twitter profile to describe herself as co-founder of The Citizens, which she bills as the “parent” of Independent Sage. On Tuesday, The Citizens tweeted: “We are a new and still tiny non-profit organisation but we are already good at creatic havoc.” The tweet was later deleted.

In a newsletter on May 17, Ms Cadwalladr wrote of The Citizens: “Our mission is impact journalism and for the last 12 months we’ve been running a handful of experimental projects in stealth mode: challenging the Government’s claim to be ‘following the science’ in the pandemic.” This contained a hyperlink to the Independent Sage website.

Yesterday Ms Cadwalladr said the links between Independent Sage and The Citizens had been “on the organisation’s website since Day 1. I’m incredibly proud of what The Citizens has done to support the work of the scientists on Independent Sage & the impact it has had,” she tweeted. A spokesman for Independent Sage said it had nothing to add to Ms Cadwalladr’s remarks.

‘If you want to lobby against a government, fine, but don’t also claim to be an objective voice’