Matthew Sinclair was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1983 and educated at Fearnhill School in Letchworth, Hertfordshire. He then studied economics and economic history at the London School of Economics at undergraduate and Master’s level. His Master’s thesis examined the effects of government deficits in the United Kingdom during the twentieth century.
While at university Matthew was involved in student journalism, with the LSE student newspaper, and intervarsity debating. At the student newspaper he became editor of the features section and succeeded in radically improving its scale and content. In his time debating he reached the grand final at Oxford and won the University College London, Manchester Intervarsity and World Masters’ competitions. He was also actively involved in student politics, arguing the case for economic liberalism in a highly anti-capitalist environment.
In breaks from university he worked for a life assurance company based in Birmingham – seeing first hand the costs of government regulation – travelled to China to make a start at learning Mandarin and to Lake Baikal in Siberia.
Matthew joined the TaxPayers’ Alliance in May 2007. At the beginning of December 2008 he became Research Director. He has produced studies on the National Health Service, crime, big government projects, the dynamic effects of tax cuts, Gordon Brown’s economic record, hate education in Palestine and environmental policy.
Beyond the Dome provided the most comprehensive account yet produced of the record of over-runs in major government projects. The report Wasting Lives used heavyweight statistical analysis and data processing to provide context for the debate over NHS performance and establish that thousands are dying thanks to high treatable mortality rates relative to other European countries. The Case Against Further Green Taxes, followed on this year by The Burden of Green Taxes, pioneered testing existing green taxes against the scale of the externalities created by climate change – similar estimates have since been produced by other groups including Government departments. The Burden of Green Taxes also included ground breaking estimates showing how green taxes affect people in every local authority in the country. The reports The Cost of Crime in London and The Cost of Crime were the first attempts to form a comprehensive picture of the burden that crime imposes on different local communities. More recently, How cutting corporation tax would boost revenue uses new regression analysis and examples to make the case that the dynamic rewards from cutting corporate tax are now sufficient to increase revenue and Gordon Brown’s Economic Failure provided the most comprehensive case yet that Brown’s record as chancellor was a poor one. Smaller reports have provided insights issues including the effect the Olympics is likely to have on construction inflation and the political effects of cutting Fuel Duty.
Matthew authored the TaxPayers’ Alliance’s Response to the Quality of Life Policy Group which provided the most comprehensive account available of the problems with that report and drew a response from one of the authors on the ConservativeHome website. The report Funding Hate Education was submitted as evidence to the House of Commons International Development Committee. He has also represented the TaxPayers’ Alliance frequently on radio, television - with appearances on the BBC News Channel, Sky News, Bloomberg, the Daily Politics and Newsnight – and in person at a range of events.
Matthew has played a central part in developing the current website that was launched last Summer and commissioning the Brown Calculator – implementing the TaxPayers’ Alliance strategy to build an active presence on the web. As well as writing for the TaxPayers’ Alliance website he writes at his own blog - which was nominated for the ConservativeHome Best Young Conservative Blogger award – and for ConservativeHome’s CentreRight.
Books
"The Union Modernisation Fund", The Little Red Book of Labour Sleaze, 2006
Reports
Gordon Brown’s Economic Failure, September 2008
How Cutting Corporation Tax Would Boost Revenue, September 2008
The Burden of Green Taxes, August 2008
The Cost of Crime, July 2008
The Looming Winter of Discontent, May 2008
The Cost of Crime in London, April 2008
The Economic and Political Case Against Higher Fuel Duty, March 2008
Budget 2008 Report, March 2008
Wasting Lives: A statistical analysis of NHS performance in a European context since 1981, January 2008
Funding Hate Education, January 2008
Rewards for Failure: Hospital Acquired Infections, December 2007
Pre-Budget Report Projects 30 per cent Council Tax Rise, October 2007
Response to the Conservative Quality of Life Policy Group Report, September 2007
The Case Against Further Green Taxes, September 2007
Green Tokenism: Government Cars, August 2007
Effect of the 2012 Olympics on Construction Inflation, August 2007
The Cost of the 2012 Olympics, July 2007
The Global Warming Industry in Local Government, July 2007
Beyond the Dome: Government projects £23 billion over budget, July 2007
Articles
How Brown wasted our taxes and our chance to prosper, Yorkshire Post, September 2008
Cameron learns his lesson from green debacle, Yorkshire Post, August 2008
The Strange Death of the Tory Climate Crusade, The American, July 2008
Decentralisation is key to better value for money in hospitals, Kent on Sunday, February 2008
The Still Emerging Blairite Legacy, TCS Daily, July 2007
America's secret success story has classical liberalism to thank, The Business, June 2007
The Political Right's Separation Anxiety, TCS Daily, April 2007
