Thiam urges Davidson to drop Prosper branding – Daily Business

Scottish think tank Prosper has lodged a formal complaint about a new Tory-supporting movement that has adopted the same name.

Daily Business revealed last week that Prosper, formerly the Scottish Council for Development and Industry, had contacted the Intellectual Property Office about the clash of name.

Now it has emerged that CEO Sara Thiam has written to former Scottish Tory leader Baroness Davidson urging her to change the name of her new grouping.

It was launched jointly with former West Midlands mayor Sir Andy Street to stir support for the Conservative party among the ‘politically homeless’.

Ms Thiam led a rebranding of SCDI to Prosper in 2024 and is owner of the trademark. After news emerged that the Davidson-Street movement would adopt the same name, she told Daily Business that she would “need to check in with IPO to see whether there is overlap in the categories”.

In her letter to Prosper UK she says its name could “impact negatively on our business” by undermining its strictly non-partisan status.

“We have worked long and hard to establish the Prosper brand and trademark, and the impartial role we play across public life in Scotland and beyond,” she said. “We’re concerned that Prosper UK’s politically affiliated name risks confusing audiences and members, and could damage our reputation.”

The Davidson-Street movement is not a new party and will not be fielding candidates at the next election. Nor is it attempting to unseat the current leader Kemi Badenoch, though some will see its plan to bolster key areas of policy as an indirect comment on the current lack of clarity in some key areas.

Baroness Davidson denied the new movement was a direct response to defections among Tory MPs, though one of its missions is to stem the haemorrhaging of Tory voters to Reform.

“What we’re trying to do is have honest conversations with voters about what they want and need from a centre-right party in Britain,” she said.

“It’s about working on policy; it’s about making sure that we’re getting out and speaking to people in Cardiff and Edinburgh and Birmingham and Wolverhampton and all these other places. But it’s also about listening and it’s about trying to make policy that will improve this country.”

In May last year a branding clash caused the Scottish think tank Reform to change its name to Enlighten to avoid any confusion with Nigel Farage’s party.