Jolyon Maugham KC’s campaign group Good Law Project has been accused of hypocrisy after restructuring itself as an offshore Jersey trust, despite the organisation having repeatedly criticised others, including Reform UK, over their own offshore financial arrangements.
Left-wing campaign group Good Law Project has been accused of “hypocrisy” after restructuring itself into an offshore trust based in Jersey. Director Jolyon Maugham KC has overseen the change, which sees the non-profit organisation now owned by a “purpose trust” registered on the island. Legal experts have criticised the move as “enormously hypocritical,” arguing it grants the group many of the benefits associated with charitable status without the oversight that comes from regulators such as the Charity Commission. The criticism is particularly pointed given that Good Law Project, which uses judicial reviews to challenge the government and public bodies, has previously scrutinised other organisations’ offshore arrangements, including publishing a 2024 article titled “The offshore bonanza powering Reform’s far-Right rhetoric.”
What Good Law Project has said
Good Law Project publicly confirmed the restructuring in May 2026, announcing that Maugham had been replaced as the organisation’s owner by the Jersey purpose trust. The organisation said it chose Jersey specifically because UK law does not generally provide for non-charitable purpose trusts of this kind, whereas Jersey law does.
The group has insisted the change is not intended to alter its tax position, stating that it will remain UK-resident for tax purposes and that there will be no change to how its income is taxed. It also confirmed that its existing asset lock remains in place, meaning its assets cannot simply be distributed for private benefit, and that the organisation continues to be unable to pay dividends.
In the immediate aftermath of the restructuring, the trust’s only trustee was a company owned by Maugham himself, with Maugham remaining the individual with significant control over the organisation. Good Law Project has said the new structure will make it possible to add further trustees in future, moving the organisation closer to a charity-style board, and confirmed that discussions were already under way with potential candidates.
Why the group avoided charitable status
The organisation has openly acknowledged that its original structure was designed to replicate some of the public-interest features associated with charitable status, while remaining outside what it described as the Charity Commission’s “moving political guardrails.”
In a witness statement, Maugham said he had considered applying for charitable status when setting up Good Law Project, but decided against it because he believed the Charity Commission had become “very politicised,” and he did not want the organisation’s work to be subject to what he considered potentially unfriendly regulation. According to the same statement, he had also considered establishing the organisation as a Community Interest Company (CIC), but concluded its political activities could create difficulties under the regulations governing CICs.
The organisation’s structure
Good Law Project was originally established in January 2017 as a company limited by guarantee, a legal structure that does not have conventional shareholders and cannot distribute profits as dividends. The recent Jersey restructuring changes who holds the organisation’s membership interest, rather than converting Good Law Project itself into a Jersey-based operating company. Its registered address and day-to-day operations remain based in the UK.
Maugham’s background
Maugham, who leads the campaign group, previously attracted significant media attention in 2019 after announcing on X, then known as Twitter, that he had killed a fox with a baseball bat on Boxing Day while wearing his wife’s kimono, an episode that drew widespread public criticism at the time.
