Matthew Jim ElliottFRSA is a British political strategist and lobbyist who has served as the chief executive of a number of organisations and been involved in various successful referendum campaigns, including Vote Leave. Elliot was the founder and has served as chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance in 2004, Big Brother Watch and Business for Britain. In 2012, he was also a founding member of Conservative Friends of Russia. According to New Statesman, "Elliott did attend a Conservative Friends of Russia reception in 2012 and a 10-day trip to the country, but said he had no further involvement." He has also seen success as a political strategist, acting as campaign director for the successful NOtoAV campaign in the 2011 Alternative Vote referendum. In 2015, Elliot became the chief executive of Vote Leave, the official organisation advocating for a 'leave' vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. He was described as "...one of the most successful political campaigners in Westminster today."
Personal life and education
Elliott was born in Leeds and attended Leeds Grammar School. He graduated with a First in BSc Government from the London School of Economics in 2000. Whilst at the LSE, he was President of the LSESU Hayek Society. In 2008, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Since 2014, he has been a trustee of the Social Affairs Unit, a right-leaning think-tank. Elliott has been described by the BBC as "one of the most effective lobbyists at Westminster", and in 2010 was named by Total Politics magazine as one of the top 25 political influencers in the UK. In 2017 he was placed at Number 85 in commentator Iain Dale's list of 'The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right'. Elliott is married to Sarah Elliott, Chairwoman of Republicans Overseas UK. The couple have one daughter and live in a penthouse apartment in Brixton in South London.
In 2004, Elliot co-founded the TaxPayers' Alliance with Andrew Allum. He served as Chief executive of the organisation until 2014. In 2009, he founded the civil liberties and privacy pressure groupBig Brother Watch, in response to "the prevailing climate of authoritarian and intrusive policies being pursued by the British state".
Referendums
NOtoAV
In 2011, he took a sabbatical to act as Campaign Director for the NOtoAV campaign during the 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum. NOtoAV were successful in maintaining the current voting system, receiving 67.9% of the votes cast. He is credited with helping to turn public opinion against the alternative vote, from 2 to 1 in favour to 2 to 1 against. The large victory for the NOtoAV campaign led to Elliot being praised as "...one of the most successful political campaigners in Westminster today". Tim Montgomerie wrote that "At the moment, he's there at the very top of centre-right campaigners in Britain...He does all the things that a successful campaigner needs to do. He has message discipline, he takes opinion research incredibly seriously, he's intelligent and works hard.'
Vote Leave
In October 2015, Elliot became the Chief executive of Vote Leave, a crossparty organisation formed to campaign to leave the European Union. Vote Leave later became the official campaigning organisation to leave the EU, after having been awarded the status by the Electoral Commission. The organisation managed to recruit the support of a number of high profile politicians, including Conservative MPsBoris Johnson and Michael Gove who became key figureheads. Despite a widespread belief that the Vote Leave campaign was heading for defeat, 52% of those who voted, or 37% of the electorate, voted to leave the EU in the 2016 referendum, therefore meaning that Elliot's campaign emerged victorious. Upon victory, Elliot was praised alongside Vote Leave Campaign Director, Dominic Cummings, as being one of the key masterminds of the victorious campaign. In July 2018, an investigation by the UK's Electoral Commission found that Elliott's campaign broke UK electoral law. According to a dossier sent by Vote to the Electoral Commission, the commission found the campaign group:
Made an inaccurate return of campaign expenditure
Is missing invoices and receipts
Failed to comply with a statutory notice, and
Exceeded its spending limit.
Elliott denied the findings. In September 2018 the High Court ruled that the Electoral Commission had 'misinterpreted' the electoral law in relation to Vote Leave in advice it gave to the Leave campaign in the run-up to the referendum, although it agreed with the Electoral Commission finding that Vote Leave had broken the law. Elliott noted that "Should the Electoral Commission choose not to appeal this judgment, they will be admitting that they gave Vote Leave incorrect advice and they should immediately reconsider the unfair fines they are seeking to impose on us."
