Liberal Democrats
Marshall had a longstanding involvement with Britain's Liberal Democrats party.[20] He was a research assistant to Charles Kennedy, former leader of the Liberal Democrats in 1985 and stood for Parliament for the SDP–Liberal Alliance in Fulham in 1987. He has made appearances on current affairs programmes such as BBC Radio 4's Any Questions?.[21][22]
In 2004, Marshall co-edited The Orange Book with David Laws. Chapters were written by various upcoming Liberal Democrat politicians including Nick Clegg, Chris Huhne, Vince Cable, Ed Davey and Susan Kramer (neither Clegg, Huhne nor Kramer were MPs at the time). Laws, describing the pair's ambition in publishing The Orange Book, wrote "We were proud of the liberal philosophical heritage of our party. But we both felt that this philosophical grounding was in danger of being neglected in favour of no more than 'a philosophy of good intentions, bobbing about unanchored in the muddled middle of British politics'"[23] The book attracted initial controversy when launched,[24][25] but both it and the term Orange Bookers to describe those sympathetic to its outlook continue to be frequently referenced to describe a strand of thought within the Liberal Democrats.[26][27]
In 2005, Marshall gave £1 million to the Liberal Democrat-aligned think tank Centre for Reform.[28] Between 2002 and 2015, he donated £200,000 to the party itself.[12]
In 2006, Marshall told The Daily Telegraph: "I decided to devote a lot of time to the Lib Dems because I think there is a very high probability they will be in overall control in the next parliament." He expressed concern that his spending would be equated with political influence: "Money is a major disadvantage in British politics [...] I just want to participate in a political process, a battle of ideas, in a one-member, one-vote party. I have one vote, like everybody else, and I also want my ideas to be influential." The Telegraph reported that Liberal Democrat advisers referred to him as "moneybags".[29]
In 2007, Marshall paid for a campaigner for Nick Clegg's ultimately successful leadership campaign.[30] By 2021, he described Clegg as among those who are "progressives" and "not traditional liberals in any understanding of the term".
During the 2010–2015 Cameron–Clegg coalition, Marshall supported the austerity programme and called for deeper cuts.[30] In 2010, Marshall was one of four involved in formal talks on the future direction of the coalition, representing the Liberal Democrats alongside David Laws, Chris Huhne and political adviser Julian Astle.[31] Over the course of the coalition government, Marshall became an ally of education secretary Michael Gove and grew more favourable to the Conservative Party.[30] From 2015, he turned away from the Liberal Democrats in disagreement with their support for remaining in the European Union.[12]
Brexit and the Conservative party
Marshall was a public supporter of Brexit during the European Union membership referendum in 2016.[32] He gave a donation of £100,000 to the Leave campaign.[12]
In April 2017, Marshall told the Financial Times that his reasons for backing Brexit were a commitment to free trade, as he considered the EU overly protectionist, opposition to Angela Merkel's immigration policy and opposition to the Euro single currency, which he said was a "flawed concept" that had hurt Southern European countries. The Financial Times said this his opposition to the EU stemmed in part from its post-2008 financial regulation, which Marshall described in 2016 as "an onslaught". Marshall also said: "Most people in Britain do not want to become part of a very large country called Europe. They want to be part of a country called Britain." That month, Marshall organised a Prosperity Conference on the UK exiting the European Union,[12] writing for BrexitCentral: "This is a huge opportunity for the UK. Our ambition is that the UK should be a champion of free trade, open and outward looking to the world and built on strong institutions."[33]
In 2017, Marshall gave funding to the political news website UnHerd.[12]
In 2020–2021, Marshall invested £10 million into the political entertainment and opinion channel GB News.[37][38] Following the resignation of Andrew Neil in September 2021, Marshall temporarily replaced him as chairman,[39][40] before being succeeded by Alan McCormick in April 2022.[41] GB News made losses of £30.7 million in 2021–22,[42]
Engagement with far-right Twitter content
In February 2024 the advocacy group Hope not Hate called attention to Marshall's activity on his private Twitter account, on which he had almost 5,000 followers, including MPs and journalists.[54][55] He had liked tweets from far right and conspiracy accounts[54][56] which called for "mass expulsions" of immigrants, which contained climate denialism (claiming there is "no definitive scientific proof" that CO2 emissions cause global warming), and which predicted civil war "once the Muslims get to 15–20%". Other tweets referred to Muslim immigration as "infiltration" that would lead to "the establishment of a totalitarian Islamic theocracy", and advocated believing in God because "the other side" is "so committed to worshipping Satan, evil, homosexuality and corrupting children".[57] One of his own tweets, referring to an interfaith ceremony conducted in a French church, said that the Christian church "has its useful idiots".
