A “DEAD duck” Tory pro-Union lobby group led by Andrew Bowie has been closed down after just two years of operation.
The Conservative Union Research Unit Ltd (CURU) was established on June 14, 2021 and listed the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine as one of the unpaid directors.
The group was set up to “provide research and briefings to Members on topics related to strengthening the Union of the United Kingdom”, according to Bowie’s register of interests, and claimed to have around 80 backbench MPs as members.
But official documents show the group has applied for a voluntary strike-off on Companies House on September 19 this year, at the request of its directors. It follows a notice of compulsory strike-off filed on September 5.
The group's confirmation statement, to verify the information held by Companies House is correct, is also listed as overdue and should have been filed by June 27 of this year.
Bowie, minister for nuclear and networks, was one of the three Tory MPs named as director of the group, alongside Robin Millar (below), Welsh Tory MP for Aberconwy and Gareth Bacon, Tory MP for Orpington.
The notice confirming the company is being closed down reads: “The Registrar of Companies gives notice that, unless cause is shown to the contrary, the Company will be struck off the register and dissolved now less than two months from the date shown above.
“Upon the Company’s dissolution, all property and rights vested in, or held in trust for, the Company are deemed to be bona vacantia, and will belong to the Crown.”
Pete Wishart, the SNP’s longest-serving MP, described the lobbying group as a “complete dead duck”.
“It’s a dud of an outfit,” he said.
“Other than Robin Millar’s initial work on this, I haven’t heard anything that they’ve done.
"It follows a succession of failed initiatives from the Union Unit to the Cabinet committee on the Union in an attempt to try and interest people in Westminster about strengthening the Union.
“The one and only priority when it comes to Scotland is to constrain the Scottish Parliament to bypass it in any way it can, it’s probably not necessary for any sort of campaigning unit to do that because that’s exactly what the Scotland Office does to Scotland all the time.”
Wishart added that the group clearly wasn’t “doing its job” if it failed to interest those in Westminster, which is dominated by Unionist parties and MPs.
“It’s done very little to interest or excite Members of Parliament’s agenda,” he said.
“I’m pretty certain that no one is going to lament its passing.”
A Scottish Greens spokesperson added: “A company founded to make the case for the Union is a company set up for failure.
“This was a group of Conservative MPs who thought they could win Scots over to their side by telling us how successful Brexit has been. But you can’t tell people to deny their own eyes and ears.
"The case for independence gets clearer every time groups like these open their mouths."
The CURU listed only £1700 in assets, with no employees, in its micro accounts for 2022.
The group’s Twitter/X page still appears to be active, with a post relating to gender reforms on October 30 reading: “Is the Labour government in Wales going to make the same error as the SNP government in Holyrood did?”
Millar previously penned an article claiming the group is not a collection of “nostalgic flag-wavers, wandering Westminster humming Rule, Britannia!”
The lobby group had intended to emulate the success of the European Research Group (ERG), which took a hardline stance on Brexit policy and helped to remove Theresa May from office as prime minister.
An article on Conservative Home claimed that the group would try to persuade ministers to broaden their arguments against granting a second independence referendum, and would be more constructive in their support for then-prime minister Boris Johnson, than the ERG had been with May.
The Conservative Party declined to comment as they said the group had nothing to do with the party.
Bowie and Millar did not respond to our request for comment.
