This non-profit organisation is like the Left's very own old boy network

Shoreditch-based non-profit organisation, Common Purpose, was founded in 1989 by Julia Middleton, a 55-year-old author and liberal activist who now works as its chief executive

Ask anyone connected to Common Purpose what it actually does, and they will almost certainly respond with a wall of impenetrable jargon. On its website, the charity likes to call itself an ‘independent, international leadership development organisation’.

In filings with the Charities Commission, it describes its ‘objective’ as being to ‘educate men, women and young people … from a broad range of geographical, political, ethnic, institutional, social and economic backgrounds, in constitutional, civic, economic, and social studies.’

The language is opaque, which is what concerns a growing chorus of critics who are starting to wonder if Common Purpose’s agenda is to create a quasi-masonic Left-wing equivalent of the ‘old boy network’.

The Shoreditch-based non-profit organisation was founded in 1989 by Julia Middleton, a 55-year-old author and liberal activist who now works as its chief executive.

It has 84 employees and an annual turnover of £5million. Its best-paid member of staff, believed to be Miss Middleton, earns between £100,000 and £110,000 a year – a considerable sum by the standards of the non-profit sector.

For more than two decades, Common Purpose’s primary activity has been to run ‘career development’ courses aimed largely at public sector and charity staff who wish to become ‘better leaders’.

The courses typically cost £5,000 and last a week. But for those who really buy into the charity’s way of thinking, the influence they buy endures for much, much longer. That’s because of Common Purpose’s all-important ‘alumni network’, which all participants are encouraged to join.

Membership allows them to interact with like-minded ‘graduates’ via a password-protected internet site, and to attend networking events held under ‘Chatham House’ rules, under which no one can be quoted by name.

No one knows how many active members regularly do just this, but 35,000 have completed Common Purpose courses over the years.

Many now hold senior positions in Whitehall, the BBC, local government and major police forces.



They range from Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the Civil Service, to Cressida Dick, one of Britain’s most senior female police officers.

For more than two decades, Common Purpose's primary activity has been to run 'career development' courses aimed largely at public sector and charity staff who wish to become 'better leaders'

Freedom of Information requests show that government departments have spent more than £1million sending staff on Common Purpose courses. The BBC spent £125,000 over a five-year period

Little wonder that some critics have compared Common Purpose to a giant octopus, whose mysterious tentacles stretch across the worlds of Westminster, Whitehall and academia. Others, citing the group’s apparent political leanings, wonder why it is allowed to continue receiving large amounts of public money.



Freedom of Information requests show that government departments have spent more than £1million sending staff on Common Purpose courses. The BBC spent £125,000 over a five-year period. Police and local councils are believed to have given it millions.

‘It’s a huge scandal,’ says Philip Davies, the Conservative MP for Shipley. ‘Common Purpose is like a Left-wing version of the freemasons. It’s a networking organisation for the great and good to advance their pro-Europe, pro-New Labour, politically correct view of the world.’

In early 2005, Julia Middleton held a networking dinner at the London offices of Pearson, the firm behind the Financial Times newspaper, which counted Sir David Bell, a Common Purpose trustee, as a senior executive

Common Purpose would deny party-political bias. But it has particularly close ties to senior Blairites.



David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, gave it free government office space in Sheffield.

In early 2005, Julia Middleton held a networking dinner at the London offices of Pearson, the firm behind the Financial Times newspaper, which counted Sir David Bell, a Common Purpose trustee, as a senior executive.

It was attended by senior bankers, academics, and a bishop, along with Robert Peston, the BBC journalist. Like many of Miss Middleton’s meetings, Peston recalled, the dinner ended ‘with a collective wail about the irresponsibility and excessive power of the media’.

A few weeks later, Middleton and Bell would co-found the Media Standards Forum, the charity which spawned the pressure group Hacked Off.