The Board of Trustees of the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is delighted to announce that Daniel Hannan, Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, will become Director General and Ralph Harris Fellow of the Institute from 1 June 2026.

His appointment marks a new chapter for the IEA — one focused on making the case for freedom, free markets, and limited government with renewed energy, broader reach, and the uncompromising intellectual clarity the Institute has always stood for.

Lord Hannan is one of the most compelling and widely read advocates for economic liberty and individual freedom in the English-speaking world. A historian, author, and former Member of the European Parliament, he has spent three decades making the intellectual case for the ideas the IEA was founded to promote. His nine books include the New York Times bestseller Inventing Freedom: How the English-Speaking Peoples Made the Modern World. He reaches audiences across Britain, America, and beyond through his journalism and broadcasting. As Director General, he will bring that reach and conviction to Britain’s oldest and most respected free-market institution.

On taking up the role, Lord Hannan will step down as the International Secretary of the Conservative Party, a post he has held continuously under four party leaders and 12 party chairmen. As the head of a charity, he will no longer take the Conservative whip and will sit in the House of Lords as a non-affiliated peer.

Lord Hannan of Kingsclere, incoming Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said:

“The IEA set Britain free. When it was founded in 1955, there was a consensus in favour of high spending, industrial management and economic planning. Ralph Harris and Arthur Seldon showed people what was wrong with those ideas, and thus unleashed the genius of our nation.

“We face a similar challenge today. Public spending and taxation are higher now than they were in 1955. We are back to the fatal conceit, the idea that politicians, bureaucrats and planners know best.

“Just like the IEA’s founders, we need to change people’s minds, to open people’s eyes. The route to national prosperity, now as then, is through deregulation, free trade, sound money and low spending. It’s not just the politicians we need to convince; it’s not even primarily the politicians. When voters understand the case for smaller government, MPs follow.

“I am so grateful to every one of my predecessors, from Ralph Harris, who inspired me as a teenager, to David Frost, whom I am proud to call my friend. They kept the flame burning. Now it is time to heap up the fire.”

Linda Edwards, Chairman of the IEA Board of Trustees, said:

“Lord Hannan is one of those rare figures who combines serious intellectual depth with the ability to communicate ideas to a genuinely mass audience — and to do so with energy and conviction that is entirely his own. He does not merely hold the right views; he has spent his life persuading others to share them. That is exactly what the IEA needs.

“The founders of this Institute understood something that is easy to forget: that advances in public understanding begin with advances in rigorous thinking. You do not shift the terms of serious debate by trimming your conclusions to what is currently fashionable. You shift them by examining the evidence carefully and making the argument, with patience and with rigour. Daniel has been doing that his entire career. I have every confidence that under his leadership the IEA will enter a period of exceptional impact.

“I also want to express the Board’s warmest thanks to Lord Frost for his service as Interim Director General. He brought to the role the same seriousness of purpose and clarity of principle that have always characterised his public life, and he leaves the IEA in strong shape. We are delighted that he will remain closely connected to the work of the Institute in his new role as Senior Policy Fellow.”

Lord David Frost of Allenton CMG, outgoing Director General and incoming Senior Policy Fellow of the IEA, said:

“Dan Hannan has been making this case longer than almost anyone and making it better than most. He understands that ideas are the engine of political change, and that the IEA’s job is to supply them — clearly, honestly, and without flinching. The Institute could not be in better hands. I look forward to watching what comes next, and to continuing to contribute to it as Senior Policy Fellow.”