People chomping down sausages and slurping bubbly in a Charlotte Street restaurant will likely be unaware that in a room above their heads is the registered London office of a US-based pro-Brexit lobbying group.
Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit party, hosted a launch for World for Brexit in New York in July, alongside American political figures who support Donald Trump.
According to the Guardian newspaper the W4B website, which has a page soliciting donations of between $100 and $1,000, says the group was formed “by friends of the UK from around the world who welcome it back to the international community free of the EU”, but does not give details about who is behind the organisation.
But more was revealed in August when the Sunday Telegraph published a letter from W4B which stated the organisation will be “launched in Britain on August 27”.
The letter was signed by Peggy Grande, chair of W4B, and several others. She is a former executive assistant to Ronald Reagan. Other signatories include Jon Dobinson and David Berens.
Dobinson and Berens are founding directors of World4Brexit a company which was registered at UK Companies House in August with a correspondence address in Charlotte Street, Fitzrovia, London.
Dobinson is the CEO of London based media group Other Creative and stood as a Tory councillor in Surrey earlier this year, arguing the case for an exit from the EU on WTO terms. He failed to get elected.
Berens is a trustee of The President Reagan Memorial Fund Trust, a charity registered in the UK. He has an office on Charlotte Street where he is a partner at Fuglers Solicitors. He sits on the board of The Fitzrovia Partnership Business Improvement District.
He is also an ambassador for Bury Football Club, which was expelled from the English Football League in August after they failed to resolve their financial difficulties.