Tax Justice UK, the campaign group that says Britain needs £50 billion a year in new taxes on the wealthy, is advertising a one-year researcher post paid, in its own words, “£21,500 Tax free for 4 days a week (equivalent to roughly £31k fulltime with tax)”.[1] The money comes via “a tax-free monthly stipend for strictly research purposes from the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust”, and the postholder “will work as part of the Tax Justice UK team”.[1][2] The trust in question was founded to advance the philosophy of Marxism.[3]
The funder
The Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust was established in 1980 by Norman Melburn and is named for “his friend and fellow Marxist, the lawyer Barry Amiel”.[3] Its declared objects are to “advance public education, learning and knowledge in all aspects of the philosophy of Marxism, the history of socialism, and the working class movement”.[3][4] The trust’s own history page, written by Amiel’s son, describes both men as sons of Jewish shopkeepers in London’s East End who were “brought to Marxism and communism by the extraordinary events of the 1930s and ’40s”, served in the anti-fascist movement, and “became active in the Communist Party” after the war — Barry as a lawyer, Norman as a chartered surveyor.[5] When Barry died in 1978, Norman pressed ahead with the trust named for him; Norman died in 1991.[3][5]
Its money has long oiled the organised Left. The trust’s annual research fellowship is “intended to facilitate research with a socialist orientation” and, in the trust’s own words, to “enhance the human resources that can support radical research”.[6] Previous partner organisations include the Fabian Society — the unregulated think tank we have documented before — plus Compass, the New Economics Foundation, the TUC, Corporate Watch, the IWGB, The World Transformed, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, CAAT and Ruskin College.[6]
The campaigning host
Tax Justice UK is a private company limited by guarantee (Company No. 10761736) that describes itself in its filed accounts as “a campaigning organisation”.[8] Its homepage promises it is “fighting for fairer taxes that take more from the super-rich”.[11] Its own annual report claims that four of its ten tax-raise proposals were “implemented in part or full” in the October 2024 Budget — the abolition of non-dom status, the rise in capital gains tax to 24%, inheritance-tax loophole closures and the North Sea windfall tax, and doubled taxes on private jets.[8]
The new post is fieldwork for the “Immigration vs Tax Narratives” project — a UK-wide study “exploring how narratives on wealth taxation can build multi-ethnic class solidarity and counter division”.[1][2] The researcher will listen to “how everyday people experience economic insecurity, understand local divisions, and respond to messaging on taxing the super-rich”, and will help turn the findings into “national narrative strategies to change tax policy”.[1][2] Duties include “the development of messages about class, immigration and tax”.[2] Applicants are asked, as part of the process, to explain “the key narratives that divide people in the UK and their impact”.[2]
The contradiction in their own documents
Here is the wrinkle. The trust’s own FAQ states: “Due to our charitable status and remit for funding political education work, the Trust cannot fund campaigning activities of any kind.”[7] Yet the fellow funded by that trust will sit inside a campaigning organisation’s team, report to its executive director, attend its weekly office meetings in Vauxhall and deliver research whose stated purpose is to change tax policy.[1][2]
And the researcher’s boss is Dr Faiza Shaheen, Tax Justice UK’s executive director — the economist and former Labour parliamentary candidate who was controversially deselected as Labour’s candidate for Chingford and Woodford Green weeks before the 2024 election, resigned from the party, and stood as an independent against Sir Iain Duncan Smith, finishing 79 votes behind Labour’s own candidate.[10] She took the helm at Tax Justice UK in 2025.[10]
The money map
Tax Justice UK’s filed accounts for 2024 show income of £866,755 — donations of £582,355 and grants of £217,093 — against salaries of £382,016, leaving a surplus of £358,168.[8] The foundations behind it are the usual suspects from the left’s funding ecosystem: Barrow Cadbury Trust, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Luminate, Solberga Foundation, Trust for London, Joffe Charitable Trust and Thirty Percy, which handed over a £400,000 core grant over four years from July 2024.[8] Barrow Cadbury, as we have shown, also bankrolls the migration-lobby machine — the same philanthropic cluster funds the tax machine.[8]
The tax-free question
The “tax free” claim deserves scrutiny. If the fellow were a salaried employee of the company, PAYE and National Insurance would apply like any other job. The advert’s answer is that the money is a research stipend paid by the charitable trust rather than a salary.[1][2] Whether HMRC would treat a researcher who works four days a week as part of a campaigning team — attending meetings, reporting to the executive director, delivering an organisation’s campaign research — as the holder of a genuine tax-free research grant is a question the advert does not answer. Guido Fawkes, which first spotted the advertisement, calculates the Treasury also forgoes roughly £3,000 of employer National Insurance that an equivalent salaried post would carry.[9]
None of this is hidden: Tax Justice UK advertises the arrangement openly, and the trust advertises its Marxist objects openly. The campaigners’ defence is in their own documents — the stipend is for “strictly research purposes”, and the trust says its charitable remit is political education, not campaigning.[1][7] But one of those two positions has to give. A trust that says it cannot fund campaigning is paying for a researcher embedded in a campaign, tax-free, to work out how to sell higher taxes as class solidarity. The people who want to close everyone else’s loopholes have found one of their own — and they put it in the job description.
Sources
[1] https://taxjustice.uk/research-fellow-immigration-vs-tax-narratives-project — TJUK job ad: Research Fellow, Immigration vs Tax Narratives [2] https://taxjustice.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Research-Fellow-application-pack-Aug26.docx.pdf — TJUK Research Fellow application pack (PDF) [3] https://amielandmelburn.org.uk/about — Barry Amiel & Norman Melburn Trust — About [4] https://amielandmelburn.org.uk/about/objectives-of-the-trust — BAMNT — Objectives of the Trust [5] https://amielandmelburn.org.uk/about/barry-amiel-and-norman-melburn — BAMNT — Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn (history) [6] https://amielandmelburn.org.uk/about/research-fellowship — BAMNT — Research Fellowship page [7] https://amielandmelburn.org.uk/frequently-asked-questions — BAMNT — FAQ (charitable status, no campaigning) [8] https://taxjustice.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2024-annual-accounts-companies-house.pdf — TJUK Report and Financial Statements 2024 (Companies House filing) [9] https://order-order.com/2026/09/03/campaign-for-more-taxes-hires-researcher-through-tax-free-loophole — Guido Fawkes: Campaign for More Taxes Hires Researcher Through Tax-Free Loophole [10] https://walthamforestecho.co.uk/2025/07/11/faiza-shaheen-to-head-tax-reform-organisation — Waltham Forest Echo: Faiza Shaheen to head tax reform organisation [11] https://taxjustice.uk — Tax Justice UK homepage (campaigns, £50bn ask)