Matthew Elliott, Baron Elliott of Mickle Fell

Elliott was born in Leeds on 12 February 1978.{{Who's Who |title=Elliott, Matthew Jim |year=2023 |id=U254308 |doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U254308}} He was privately educated at Leeds Grammar School and graduated with a first-class BSc degree in government from the London School of Economics in 2000. He was the president of the LSESU Hayek Society.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/2009/09/matthew-elliott/|title=Matthew Elliott Bio on Big Brother Watch|website=bigbrotherwatch.org.uk|access-date=25 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160916114309/https://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/2009/09/matthew-elliott/|archive-date=16 September 2016|url-status=dead}}

Elliott has been described by the BBC as "one of the most effective lobbyists at Westminster",[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11083354 Yes to AV campaign ‘will be fun’, say organisers], BBC News, 25 August 2011 and in 2010 was named by Total Politics as one of the top 25 political influencers in the UK.[http://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/3878/top-50-political-influencers.thtml Top 50 political influencers] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127193618/http://www.totalpolitics.com/articles/3878/top-50-political-influencers.thtml |date=27 January 2013 }}, Total Politics, 19 February 2010 In 2017 he was placed at number 85 in commentator Iain Dale's list of the "Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right".{{Cite news|url=http://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/iain-dale/100-most-influential-people-on-right-iain-dale/|title=The Top 100 Most Influential People on the Right: Iain Dale's 2017 List|last=Dale|first=Iain|date=2 October 2017|work=LBC|access-date=30 November 2017}}

Since 2014, Elliott has been married to Sarah Elliott ({{nee|Smith}}), who became the chairwoman of Republicans Overseas UK in 2017.{{Cite news|url=https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/london-playbook/politico-london-playbook-presented-by-microsoft-poll-shock-first-couple-of-populism-politicos-head-to-madrid/|title=Politico London Playbook, presented by Microsoft: Poll shock – First couple of populism – Politicos head to Madrid|last=Dickson|first=Annabelle|date=31 May 2019|work=Politico|access-date=24 July 2019}} The couple have two daughters and live in South London {{as of|2019|lc=y}}. Elliott was previously married to Florence Heath from 2005 to 2012.

Elliott served as press officer for the European Foundation from 2000, and political secretary to Timothy Kirkhope MEP from 2001.

In 2004, Elliott co-founded the TaxPayers' Alliance with Andrew Allum. He served as Chief executive of the organisation until 2014.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

In 2009, he founded the civil liberties and privacy pressure group Big Brother Watch, in response to "the prevailing climate of authoritarian and intrusive policies being pursued by the British state".{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

In 2012, he was also a founding member of Conservative Friends of Russia.T Snyder, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (Penguin Random House 2018) 105. C Cadwalladr, 'Brexit, the ministers, the professor and the spy: how Russia pulls strings in UK' (4 November 2017) [https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/04/brexit-ministers-spy-russia-uk-brexit Guardian]. In an article for the New Statesman, Elliot said he attended a Conservative Friends of Russia reception in 2012 and a 10-day trip to the country, but claimed he had no further involvement."

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,[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13297573 Vote 2011: UK rejects alternative vote], BBC News, 7 May 2011 receiving 67.9% of the votes cast.[http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110805203556/http%3A//ukreferendumresults.aboutmyvote.co.uk/en/default.aspx UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system], Electoral Commission. Retrieved 29 March 2012 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 Elliott 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.'{{Cite web|url=http://www.prweek.com/article/1082200/matthew-elliott-man-moment|title=Matthew Elliott: Man of the moment|website=prweek.com|access-date=11 August 2016}}

File:Vote Leave - geograph.org.uk - 5002468.jpg

In October 2015, Elliott became the chief executive of Vote Leave, a cross-party organisation formed to campaign for Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34484687|title=The battle to be the official EU referendum Leave campaign|publisher=BBC News|date=9 October 2015 |access-date=11 August 2016}} Vote Leave later became the official campaigning organisation for Brexit, 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 MPs Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, who became key figureheads.

Despite a widespread belief that the Vote Leave campaign was heading for defeat, nearly 52 per cent of those who voted, or 37 per cent of the electorate, voted to leave the EU in the 2016 Brexit referendum. Elliott was praised alongside Dominic Cummings, Vote Leave's campaign director, as being one of the key masterminds of the victorious campaign.{{Cite news|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/90c054fe-3953-11e6-9a05-82a9b15a8ee7.html|title=How Vote Leave won the EU referendum|last=Payne|first=Sebastian|date=24 June 2016|newspaper=Financial Times|location=London|issn=0307-1766|access-date=10 August 2016}}

In July 2018, an investigation by the Electoral Commission accused Elliott's campaign of breaking UK electoral law, which Elliott denied.Kuenssberg, Laura. [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44704561 "Vote Leave broke electoral law, Electoral Commission expected to say"], BBC News, London, 3 July 2018. Retrieved on 4 July 2018. The High Court agreed in September 2018 that Elliott's campaign had broken the law, but ruled that the Electoral Commission had misinterpreted the electoral law in relation to Vote Leave in advice it gave.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45519676 Electoral Commission 'misinterpreted' Vote Leave expenses, court rules. Retrieved 10 September 2019]

Elliott was nominated by Liz Truss for a life peerage in her list of resignation honours.{{cite web |title=Resignation Peerages December 2023 |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/658ef5c280a3bb000e9d0605/Resignation_Peerages_Dec_2023.pdf |publisher=Government of the United Kingdom |access-date=30 December 2023}} His nomination resulted in complaints to the House of Lords Appointments Commission over the funding of one of his pro-Brexit campaigns.{{Cite news |date=2023-04-17 |title=Vetting body urged to reject peerage for Vote Leave chief|work=The Guardian|location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/apr/17/lords-vetting-body-urged-to-reject-peerage-for-matthew-elliott-brexit-campaign |access-date=2023-05-08 |issn=0261-3077}} He was created Baron Elliott of Mickle Fell, of Barwick-in-Elmet in the City of Leeds, on 6 February 2024.{{London Gazette |date=12 February 2024 |issue=64313 |page=2726}}

Elliott was portrayed by actor John Heffernan in the HBO- and Channel 4-produced drama, Brexit: The Uncivil War (2019).{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/brexit-uncivil-war-review-benedict-cumberbatch-gripping-watch/|title=Brexit: The Uncivil War review: Benedict Cumberbatch is superb in this thrilling romp through the referendum|last=Bennett|first=Asa|date=28 December 2018|work=The Daily Telegraph|location=London|access-date=8 January 2019|issn=0307-1235|url-access=subscription}}{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/49f2b912-0f67-11e9-acdc-4d9976f1533b|title=Vote Leave's Matthew Elliott on Channel 4's Brexit: The Uncivil War|last=Elliott|first=Matthew|date=4 January 2019|work=Financial Times|location=London|quote=Screenwriter James Graham has turned the campaign into a compelling story – and nailed my mannerisms|url-access=subscription}}

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Category:1978 births

Category:Living people

Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics

Category:British lobbyists

Category:British political consultants

Category:Conservative Party (UK) life peers

Category:Life peers created by Charles III

Category:People educated at Leeds Grammar School

Category:Politicians from Leeds

Category:21st-century British politicians

Category:British Eurosceptics