Founder and Director of Centre Think Tank
Torrin Wilkins
Torrin Wilkins is the Founder and Director of Centre Think Tank. Since founding the organisation, he has led its development into a national cross-party think tank, expanding its membership, supporter base, volunteer network, and media presence.
His primary policy focus is economic policy and devolution. As part of this work, he delivered a seminar to HMRC on creating a fairer tax system and developed a series of proposals on pandemic support schemes that were recommended by an All-Party Parliamentary Group of 260 MPs for consideration by the Treasury. Among his published work are papers on devolution backed by former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock and on tax loopholes supported by Former Party Leader Gina Miller.
Several Torrin’s policy ideas have been adopted by political parties and incorporated into their manifestos. He has also authored more than a dozen policy papers and published over 100 policy proposals.
Torrin’s work has been featured in national media, including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Mirror, and Politico. He has also appeared on the BBC and LBC, and in 2021, he served as a weekly columnist for the national publication Backbench.
Torrin holds a degree in Political Studies from Aberystwyth University, where he focused on China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Papers
This submission covers complaints procedures within politics, recall petitions for Members of Parliament, and standards in politics.
This paper focuses on think tank transparency within the UK. It includes rankings of every think tank within the UK, some of the major issues with the lack of transparency in the current system, and proposes solutions which increase transparency.
This paper outlines a roadmap for future devolution, including expanding devolution in nations and establishing new devolution deals in England.
To understand the state of the centre ground today and to propose ways to grow the centre ground of politics, we worked with Millbank Think Tank on a poll to understand how the public labels their political beliefs.
This is a written interview between the Director of Centre Think Tank, Torrin Wilkins, and Ben Crewe, who is the Deputy Director of the Prisons Research Centre at the Institute of Criminology.
Closing Loopholes sets out a plan to close loopholes and reduce unfairness in the tax system.
This paper shows how the UK could implement a new scheme to support small businesses and workers while also filling skill shortages.
This paper shows why we should keep local justice areas and how removing them would impact the justice system.
This paper sets out the case for a public inquiry into those excluded from the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Furlough Scheme.
This paper shows how the government could expand the furlough scheme to support more workers during the pandemic.
This paper provides solutions for those individuals excluded from the government's income support schemes.
This paper looks at how we can improve working from home with COVID-19, causing a shift away from in-person work.
This paper explores options for high-speed rail within the UK, including Maglev, HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail, and Hyperloop.
This paper explores a potential treatment for HIV and how similar drugs could be rolled out.
Articles and videos
Iceland has not only rejected talks with the EU on membership, but it has also created a pathway for the UK.
Torrin and Jasneet try to remember as many of our policies as they can in just 30 seconds.
Our video on protecting the environment and fighting climate change.
Torrin speaks about our work and our vision for the future.
I am assuming if you are reading this you have heard of Ikea, the global furniture company founded in Sweden.
With gas bills going up our current system is failing.
During Brexit the UK government decided to leave the Erasmus+ scheme. Instead, the UK would start a new scheme called the Turing Scheme.
We have railway workers on strike over pay, terms and conditions changes, and redundancies.
When Universal Credit was created, it was in part to solve a large issue with the benefits system, the benefits trap.
As a 21-year-old, owning my own home seems like an unreachable goal which I could not be further away from.
A few months ago, I published an article on 1828 talking about how we can learn from the Japanese rail system.
The UK has three main types of property tax. The first is council tax which uses a series of bands to decide how much someone should pay.
Just over a month ago, I spoke in front of the Gaps in Support All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) about employees who could not access the furlough scheme.
In the UK possessing or supplying drugs is illegal and in theory this should stop people from getting hold of drugs to begin with. In reality this approach has failed with drug deaths per 100,000 people standing at 4.23.
The Nordic model is famous for three ideas: free markets, strong public services and high taxes.
Across Northern Ireland and in a few areas of England a system called academic selection is used.
Despite years of reducing the number of nuclear weapons, the UK government has changed course.
As a temporary measure during the pandemic, the government increased Universal Credit payments by £20 per week.