David Hart

[close] David Hart (1944 - 2011) was an English writer, businessman, and adviser to Margaret Thatcher. He also had a career in the 1960s as an avant-garde filmmaker. He was a controversial figure during the 1984–85 miners' strike and played a leading role in organising and funding the anti-strike campaign in the coalfields.

In 1987 he formed the Campaign for a Free Britain, "an extreme right wing organization", funded by Rupert Murdoch which used "anti-gay material during its anti-Labour campaign in 1987". In 1988 he played a leading role in mobilising young activists against pro-devolution dissidents at the Scottish Conservative & Unionist Party conference in Perth.

In the autumn of 1993 Hart was appointed as a personal advisor to Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary of State for Defence. In the 2000s he was involved in the international defence industry – including as a lobbyist for BAE Systems and Boeing. In 2004 an arrest warrant for Hart was issued concerning his alleged involvement in that year's coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea.