State Department plans $12M in grants to UK conservative groups

Former officials criticize lack of competitive bidding for awards

The Trump administration intends to direct $12 million in State Department funds to three organizations in the United Kingdom founded by prominent British conservatives, according to a congressional notification reviewed by The Guardian.

The largest allocation is $7 million for 878, a recently incorporated British think tank whose founding directors include Jacob Rees-Mogg, a former minister of state for Brexit opportunities, and his former special adviser Dr. Radomir Tylecote. The congressional notification describes the funding as justified by 878’s “unique role in the United Kingdom as … a dedicated nonpartisan organisation focused on advancing fundamental freedoms.” According to the notification, the grant will “strengthen the transatlantic partnership” by addressing “common threats to Western civilisation, such as mass migration, censorship, lawfare and supranational governance.”

The group’s website says it is focused on “mass migration,” “warfighting,” and “rejuvenating energy abundance for urgent re-industrialisation,” as well as “Judeo-Christian culture.” It takes its name from the year King Alfred the Great defeated the “Great Heathen Army.” The group appears to have been incorporated in the UK in March, and its U.S. nonprofit registration is listed as “pending.” The grant to 878 is structured as a sole-source award, bypassing the normal competitive bidding process that State Department grants typically require.

The State Department has also set aside $5 million for Free Speech Union International as a sole-source award, citing its work “promoting free speech and countering digital overregulation across the UK, Europe, and Australia.” The group is an offshoot of the Free Speech Union, founded by the Conservative life peer Toby Young. The FSU describes itself as a non-partisan, mass membership body, but critics see it as a partisan rallying point for right-wing causes. The group notes: “We take no government money and have no political agenda.”

A third allocation of $3 million goes to the Jobs Foundation, a UK charity whose president is Matthew Elliott, formerly chief executive of the official pro-Brexit campaign Vote Leave, and whose chief executive is Georgiana Bristol, former development director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance. The grant is for a program called “Countering Overregulation to Advance American Investment.” The source material does not specify whether this award is structured as a sole-source grant or would follow competitive procedures.

Five former State Department officials, speaking to The Guardian, described a months-long effort by Trump-aligned individuals within the department to subvert normal funding procedures and direct taxpayer money to conservative and MAGA-aligned causes in the UK and Europe. A former official who reviewed the allocations called the lack of procedure “outrageous and absurd,” saying that sole-source awards “require significant legal justification to avoid required competitive processes.” Another former official described the allocations as “horrible stewardship of US taxpayer money.”

A State Department spokesperson said the grants would “continue to undergo the Department’s standard and rigorous vetting process by grant professionals” and that decisions remained under “active deliberation.”

Toby Young told The Guardian that Free Speech Union International had “expressed interest in applying for grant funding from the US State Department” but had not submitted a formal application or been awarded a grant. A spokesperson for the Jobs Foundation said it was “under consideration for project funding for a piece of international economic research.” Jacob Rees-Mogg and Radomir Tylecote did not respond to requests for comment.

The disclosure presents an early challenge to incoming Labour Prime Minister Andy Burnham, who said last week he would be “very upfront” with Trump about disagreements. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, responding earlier in the week to the prospect of grants to MAGA-aligned groups in Berlin, said: “I do not want the American government or institutions close to the government to interfere in German elections.”

Rees-Mogg, Young, and Tylecote were all scheduled to speak this week at the inaugural UK edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference in London, organized by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The plans also follow the State Department’s announcement earlier this week that it would offer grants of up to $3 million to European groups focused on “developing civilizational bonds” and “defending rule of law.”