The largest right-wing body was until recently described as David Cameron’s ‘favourite think-tank’. It sparked the biggest think-tank controversy of recent years when it published a report on radical Islam in 2007.

Address: Clutha House, 10 Storey’s Gate, Westminster, SW1P 3AY
Telephone: 020 7340 2650
Email: info@policyexchange.co.uk
Website: http://www.policyexchange.org.uk

Director: Neil O'Brien
Managing Director: Sian Hansen
Deputy Director: Natalie Evans
Communications Director: Amy Fisher

Since its foundation in 2002, Policy Exchange has succeeded in becoming both the largest and the most influential think-tank on the centre-right. It has dedicated itself to developing free-market and local solutions to persistent social problems.

However, it is Policy Exchange’s work on radical Islam that has received most attention and has proved most controversial. In October 2007 it published a year-long investigation entitled The Hijacking of British Islam: How extremist literature is subverting mosques in the UK. It reported that it had discovered violent, misogynistic and homophobic literature being sold and distributed at ostensibly mainstream mosques. The report was subsequently called into question by BBC 2’s Newsnight which claimed that several of the book receipts appeared to have been forged and that a number of the bookshops were unconnected to the mosques named. Policy Exchange rejected the programme’s claims as “libelous and perverse” and threatened the BBC with legal action. Newsnight defended their report and Policy Exchange has so far failed to mount a legal challenge.

The organisation displayed its knack for controversy once again in the summer of 2008 when it published the reportCities Unlimited: Making Urban Regeneration Work. The report argued that urban regeneration in cities including Sunderland, Liverpool and Bolton had failed and suggested that northerners should instead migrate to the south. It encouraged the government to explore using Oxford and Cambridge for this purpose. The report, from the body then often described as David Cameron’s ‘favourite think-tank’, proved deeply embarrassing to the Conservative leader, who had just commenced a tour of northern marginals. Cameron swiftly distanced himself from the report, describing it as “complete rubbish” and ridiculing it as “insane”.

Policy Exchange was founded by Conservative Party activist Nicholas Boles and by Michael Gove, the current Shadow Secretary for Schools. London Mayor Boris Johnson’s current Director of Policy, Anthony Browne, led the think-tank from 2007-8. The current director is Neil O’Brien, who was previously director of Open Europe.

Post your comment

Please note: you will need to login or register before you can comment on the website