Liberty League

The Liberty League was a network of young libertarians that described itself as “a network of students and professionals committed to the promotion of freedom”.¹

People

The Director of the Liberty League, also one of the founders, was Anton Howes, who studied War Studies at King’s College London, and went on to become a Lecturer in Economic History at the same college.²

The two other founders were Will Hamilton and James Lawson.³
Hamilton and Lawson were both members of the Adam Smith Institute‘s Next Generation project, “a social and intellectual hub for students and young professionals between the ages of 16 and 30″ which brings together “like-minded individuals who are interested in classical liberal, free-market and libertarian ideas”.⁴ The Adam Smith Institute has a history of accepting funding from the tobacco industry.

Jennifer Salisbury-Jones was the Liberty League’s Communications Manager from 2013-2015. She then joined the The TaxPayers’ Alliance as Campaigns Manager.²

Freedom Forums

The Liberty League ran so-called ‘Freedom Forums’ between 2011 and 2015.

These were conferences aimed at libertarians, and included speakers with tobacco industry links including:
Alex Deane, Tim Evans, Christopher Snowdon, Eamonn Butler, Josie Appleton, Claire Fox and Angus Kennedy of the Institute of Ideas, Rob Lyons (deputy editor at Spiked), Mark Littlewood of the Institute of Economic Affairs, Simon Richards of The Freedom Association, Simon Clark of Forest, and Timothy Cox of Liberal Vision.⁵⁶⁷

Affiliations

Liberty League’s website listed the following organisations as “part of our network”:⁸

• Adam Smith Institute
• Institute of Economic Affairs
• The Cobden Centre
• Legatum Institute
• Big Brother Watch
• Liberal Vision
• Progressive Conservatives
• The Freedom Association
• The Free Society
• The TaxPayers’ Alliance
• Young Britons’ Foundation

In June 2011, the League was one of several organisations that took part in a series of debates, called Voices of Freedom, at the Institute of Economic Affairs (which has a history of being funded by the tobacco industry) in London, organised by The Free Society.⁹