Six figures from academia, business, financial markets, journalism and public life join Great British Think Tank to provide independent scrutiny and intellectual challenge.

London, 14 September 2026

Great British Think Tank (GBTT) today announces the six founding members of its new Academic Advisory Council, bringing together distinguished figures from academia, business, financial markets, journalism and public life.

Founding members

Luke Johnson — Chairman and co-owner of Gail’s bakeries and a director and co-owner of Inspecs Group plc. He previously served as Chairman of PizzaExpress plc, Channel 4 Television and the Institute of Cancer Research. He wrote a weekly business column for 20 years, in succession for The Sunday Telegraph, the Financial Times and The Sunday Times.

Dr David Starkey CBE — one of Britain’s leading historians. He is the author of best-selling books on the Tudors; has guest-curated several major historical exhibitions and made some of the most important and widely watched historical documentary series on TV. He is also a prominent and controversial commentator on current affairs. He was labelled “the rudest man in Britain” by the Daily Mail in the 1990s and “cancelled” in 2020. But he has re-emerged as a leading figure on the New Right. He has his own YouTube channel, David Starkey Talks, while his call for a Great Repeal Act to undo the catastrophic constitutional innovations of the Blair government commands increasingly wide agreement.

Professor James Tooley — former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham and an internationally recognised education scholar. He previously held academic positions at Oxford, Manchester and Newcastle universities, where he was Professor of Education Policy. His pioneering research into low-cost private education has won major international awards, including the IFC/Financial Times Private Sector Development Competition and the Templeton Prize for Free Market Solutions to Poverty.

Marcus Ashworth — financial markets commentator and former Bloomberg Opinion columnist with almost four decades of experience in global markets. Before moving into financial journalism, he was head of fixed income and other senior roles in investment banking, including Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and SBC Warburg (now UBS).

Izabella Kaminska — financial journalist, commentator and founder of The Blind Spot. She spent 13 years at the Financial Times, latterly as editor of FT Alphaville, before becoming Senior Finance Editor at POLITICO Europe. Her work has focused extensively on financial markets, monetary policy and the intersection between economics, finance and technology.

William Clouston — leader of the Social Democratic Party from early 2018 until August 2026. He joined the SDP in 1982 and campaigned in general elections, local elections and by-elections throughout the 1980s, and by 1989 was on the party’s approved list of parliamentary candidates. He later spent four years in the Conservative Party, becoming a district councillor in 1999 and serving on Tynedale Council until 2003. A former parliamentary candidate on four occasions, he is presently chairman of Corbridge Parish Council in Northumberland. He has over 35 years of experience in town planning, property development and commercial estate management. He holds first and masters degrees in urban planning and property management respectively, and read philosophy at Durham University at postgraduate level.

The Council has been established to provide independent expertise, scrutiny and intellectual challenge as GBTT expands its research and policy work.

The six founding members come from different intellectual, professional and political traditions. The purpose of the Council is not to manufacture consensus, but to bring serious experience, scrutiny and intellectual challenge to GBTT’s work.

Comment

Damian Pudner, Director of GBTT, said:

"What matters to us is the quality of the work. If GBTT is going to challenge government, institutions and received wisdom, then our own arguments have to stand up to serious scrutiny.

"That is why this Council matters. Luke, David, James, Marcus, Izabella and William bring an extraordinary range of experience across academia, business, financial markets, journalism and public life. They have reached the top of very different fields and bring very different perspectives with them.

"We are not looking for an advisory council that simply agrees with us. We want people who will challenge our assumptions, test our arguments and tell us when they think we are wrong.

"For a young, independent organisation to attract six people of this calibre is a considerable vote of confidence in what we are building — but, more importantly, it raises the bar for the work we produce."

Members of the Academic Advisory Council will provide specialist expertise and intellectual challenge to GBTT and its researchers. Members remain independent, and membership of the Council does not imply endorsement of every GBTT publication or policy position.

The six appointments form the founding membership of the Academic Advisory Council, with further appointments expected as GBTT continues to grow.

ENDS

Meet the Council - [https://gbtt.info/about]

About the Great British Think Tank

Great British Think Tank (GBTT) is an independent, data-driven think tank and media platform built around a simple principle: Data, not vibes. It uses official public data to follow the money, scrutinise government spending and waste, and hold government and public institutions to account for what they spend, what they promise and what they actually deliver.

Its work ranges across tax, public spending, the NHS, immigration, housing and energy, tracing today’s outcomes back to the policies and decisions that produced them. GBTT publishes its sources and methodology so its conclusions can be tested rather than simply asserted.

GBTT is editorially independent and is not affiliated with any political party.

Media enquiries: Damian Pudner, Director · DPudner@gbtt.info · 07593 970671

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