Gwythian Prins, a Charity Commission board member, has written an essay calling for Britain to leave the European Union, which will be published by the 'sock puppet' think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs.

The Charity Commission is currently looking into the IEA after former board member Andrew Purkis raised concerns about the think tank’s political and campaigning activity. The IEA published a report into 'sock puppet' charities and campaigned for the introduction of an anti-advocacy clause in government grant agreements. 

Prins sits on the regulator’s policy guidance committee, which has strategic oversight of all the Commission’s guidance, including its recent guidance on EU campaigning. The Commission amended its guidance after complaints about its tone.

The essay, Beyond the Ghosts – does EU membership erode Britain’s global influence? was published by Historians for Britain, an affiliate of the Business for Britain campaign group which was set up to campaign for changes to EU membership, at the beginning of the year and Prins appeared on the Today programme discussing the paper.

It also stated that “an abbreviated version of this essay will be published in the IEA book on Britain and the EU". An IEA newsletter for spring 2016 names Prins as a contributor to an IEA study Breaking up is hard to do: Britain and Europe’s dysfunctional relationship.

In the essay, Prins said: “In short, either the EU must change its very nature, or the British must leave the project.”

He outlined his reasons for believing that Britain should leave the European Union, including control over energy supplies, and said: “The removal of Britain from the spider’s web of the acquis communautaire, which snares everything, is the prerequisite for the reconstruction of mature and healthy relations with our neighbours.”

Prins concludes that unless there are changes to EU treaties “then in the forthcoming referendum the course of action for an electorate that speaks for Britain is quite clear. We should escape and leave.”

He compared the British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership to the Syrizia party in Greece. And he said that there is “the potential for a revival of anarcho-syndicalist street politics in Europe are greater than democrats credit.

“One must always remember that the hard Left does not wish to win elections even if it could, only to discredit the democratic process.”

The Commission said that Prins was not involved in its dealings with the IEA.

A Commission spokesman said: “Where the board take any oversight of our casework it is through the Public Interest Litigation and High Risk Cases Committee. This committee reviews cases involving litigation or restitution, or cases that are high risk, and where there is a strong public interest. Professor Prins is not a member of the Committee nor has the Committee considered this case.”

Prins has previously been criticised for meeting with the IEA shortly before becoming a member of the Charity Commission board.