Taxpayers Funded ERG Brexit

This is the story of how a fringe Conservative party pressure group was transformed into a highly disciplined, secretive party within a party that changed the course of British politics – and how taxpayer money, anonymous private donations and a hidebound parliamentary system helped them do it.
In an extract from his new book, Peter Geoghegan shows how the European Research Group became a tightly organised ‘party within a party’ that set the UK on course for a no-deal Brexit.

At  a point in History where Germany is arresting far-right activists from within its pool of police officers, the UK finds itself having been over-run from within and a small but well funded section of the public is cheering.

‘A corruption of Conservatism’: how a cartel of Tory MPs broke British politics

Peter Geoghegan is investigations editor of openDemocracy’s main site and author of ‘Democracy for Sale’. He can be found on Twitter @PeterKGeoghegan.