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An appeal raising funds to create a visitor centre dedicated to Baroness Thatcher has instead spent much of its fortune encouraging young people to support right-wing beliefs.

The Tory MP Conor Burns is under scrutiny by the Charity Commission over his involvement in the British wing of a transatlantic campaign that was supposed to build a museum and library devoted to the former prime minister.

An investigation by The Times has found that most donations to the Margaret Thatcher Centre’s US fundraising vehicle came from the billionaire Robert Mercer, President Trump’s top donor. He set up Cambridge Analytica, the consulting company that controversially became involved in data mining, and bankrolled Steve Bannon, the alt-right activist.

Conor Burns is facing scrutiny from the Charity Commission
It can also be revealed that, after a public appeal in Britain for money to buy Thatcher’s outfits, Mr Burns and another trustee bid at a Christie’s auction to buy them for a private collector. A solicitor with expertise in charities said that he expected the Charity Commission “would take a dim view” of the apparent conflict of interest.

The Margaret Thatcher Centre, due to open this year to mark the 40th anniversary of her becoming prime minister and 60 years since she was elected to parliament, has made little progress. Leading Conservatives, including Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and politicians from around the world have supported the cause but there is nothing concrete to show for it.


Ben Elliot, a nephew of the Duchess of Cornwall, was a founding trustee of the British branch of the appeal. Mr Elliot, who is the government’s newly appointed food waste tsar, said that he had stepped down because of its “failure to achieve its original goals”.

An early ambition to build the centre at Westminster was eventually ditched in favour of the more modest location of the University of Buckingham, where Thatcher served as chancellor. A spokeswoman for the university said that there had been talks but the centre was unlikely to open this year. Accounts show that nearly all the money raised for the centre on both sides of the Atlantic has been spent.

Instead of being used to create a library and museum, money donated in America was poured into student exchanges between Britain and the US to promote the “Anglosphere”, including a visit by American students to the conservative Freedom Association’s conference in Bournemouth. A donation was also given to a John Wilkes Centre in London, named after the 18th-century radical reformer.

The annual “London scholars programme” for students includes sightseeing to Cambridge or Oxford, private policy briefings on Brexit and the Anglo-American special relationship, and a drinks reception at the Gherkin, the skyscraper in the City of London. British students go to Marymount, a politically neutral Catholic university in Washington.

The US-based Cherish Freedom Foundation raised more than $1 million in five years but nearly all of it has gone on student exchanges. Fundraising in Britain has been carried out by the Cherish Freedom Trust, created during the days between Thatcher’s death and her funeral in May 2013. Its accounts show it raised £300,000 in two years but spent most of this on events, consultants, professional fees and travel.

The trust gained charitable status in 2014. However, the Charity Commission is understood to have taken the unusual step of seeking and receiving detailed assurances regarding its independence. Regulatory sources said that any evidence of this principle not being properly upheld would be of serious concern.

Gary Rycroft, a solicitor and expert on the legal affairs of charities, said that it sounded like the charity “was on their radar from the word go”. He said it seemed that the commission had “flagged it during the registration process as a concern and therefore sought particular assurances that they wouldn’t normally seek”.

Based in Kent and London, the Cherish Freedom Trust had personal and corporate connections with right-wing and business interests. In an article for Breitbart, the news website heavily funded by Mr Mercer, the US-based Cherish Freedom Foundation said that its transatlantic programmes were aimed at “spreading conservatism in Britain and Europe”.

Charities in England are forbidden from having a political purpose. Mr Burns once reported Oxfam to the Charity Commission for attacking the government’s austerity programme.

The Cherish Freedom Trust’s remaining trustees are Mr Burns and a company, also called Cherish Freedom, whose director is Mr Burns.

The commission said last night: “Concerns have been raised with us about the Cherish Freedom Trust. We are currently assessing information relating to the charity and the trustees’ legal duties and responsibilities to protect the charity’s independence and manage any conflicts of interest. If we identify serious regulatory issues, we will take the matter forward.”

The Margaret Thatcher Centre said: “The centre still runs programmes on both sides of the Atlantic while continuing to secure pledges to enable a permanent facility to be opened in due course.”

Mr Elliot said that the project had “huge ambitions and unfortunately for a number of reasons it didn’t succeed. It was just a story of something that could have been brilliant and sadly wasn’t.”

Mr Burns did not respond to requests for comment.