The Constitutional Research Council (CRC) is a Unionist funding organisation, chaired by

Scottish Conservative The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons, 30 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Par ...

Richard Cook. It helped to fund the DUP's

Leave campaign Campaigning in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum began unofficially on 20 February 2016 when Prime Minister David Cameron formally announced under the terms of the European Union Referendum Act 2015 that a referendum wou ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, and in mainland Britain, during the

Brexit referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...

in 2016. The CRC made a record-breaking donation to the DUP's leave campaign of £435,000, which was mainly used to fund advertising on the UK mainland. The CRC has also funded the

European Research Group The European Research Group (ERG) is a research support group and caucus of Eurosceptic Conservative Members of Parliament of the United Kingdom. In a ''Financial Times'' article in 2020, the journalist Sebastian Payne described the ERG as " ...

and its chairman, the Brexit minister Steve Baker. The CRC has no website, publishes no accounts and does not reveal the names of its donors. The only office-holder to be made public is the chairman Richard Cook, a former vice-chairman of the

Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Ki ...

, parliamentary candidate in Glasgow Cathcart in 2003 and at the 2005 by-election, and a supporter of

The Freedom Association The Freedom Association (TFA) is a pressure group in the United Kingdom that describes itself as "a non-partisan, classically liberal campaign group", which has links to the Conservative Party and UK Independence Party (UKIP). TFA was founded ...

. Cook has had business connections with Prince Nawwaf bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the former Saudi minister for finance, government spokesman, diplomat and head of intelligence, and the Danish arms dealer Peter Haestrup who has been linked to a

gun running Arms trafficking or gunrunning is the illicit trade of contraband small arms, explosives, and ammunition, which constitutes part of a broad range of illegal activities often associated with transnational criminal organizations. The illegal tra ...

case in

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

described by Indian authorities as “the biggest crime in the country's history". According to Cook, the CRC are prepared to help fund the anti-independence campaign during any

proposed second Scottish independence referendum A second referendum (commonly referred to as indyref2) on Scotland becoming Scottish independence, independent of the United Kingdom (UK) has been proposed by the Scottish Government. An 2014 Scottish independence referendum, independence refe ...

References

2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum Political advocacy groups in Scotland Political campaigns in the United Kingdom Unionism in Scotland Unionism in Ireland Political funding in the United Kingdom Political scandals in Northern Ireland 2014 Scottish independence referendum Conservative Party (UK) donors {{poli-org-stub

See also

References