Brexit campaigner Daniel Hannan was allowed to launch a new think tank at the Foreign Office without paying an expensive hire fee – even though the government’s chief ethics watchdog raised concerns about the event being funded by public money, BuzzFeed News can reveal.

A decision by Boris Johnson to allow Hannan to use government property to launch the Institute for Free Trade (IFT) last year was criticised by political opponents and kicked off a backroom argument between political aides and senior civil servants.

It eventually led to the Foreign Office changing its rules around the hiring of rooms to private organisations.

The dispute is detailed within a cache of emails obtained by BuzzFeed News under the Freedom of Information Act, which sheds light on the controversial launch of the IFT at the Foreign Office in September last year.

The IFT was set up by Hannan, a Conservative MEP, and seeks to pressure British MPs to adopt a harder stance on Brexit, including dropping EU tariffs and transitioning the country to a Singapore-style economy.



But when it was announced the pressure group would be launching in the Foreign Office's Map Room – with Johnson both hosting and speaking at the event – questions were raised about whether the foreign secretary was breaching the ministerial code.