Who was that woman attacking Tory policy on marriage this morning?

At 0853am this morning the Today programme interviewed Katherine Rake of the Family and Parenting Institute. She used her three minute twenty second slot to attack the Tory idea that marriage should be recognised by the tax system. She avoided a question about the evidence that shows marriage is much more stable than cohabitation and continued her political talking points.

She was presented as an independent expert on family policy but who is she and what is the Family and Parenting institute?

Katherine Rake was until recently a very regular contributor to The Guardian and ran the Fawcett Society.  In a profile to mark her departure from seven years of running the Fawcett Society, she was described by The Guardian as "Feminism's calm champion".

The Family and Parenting Institute is nearly entirely funded by the taxpayer.  In 2008/9 £9.5m of the Institute's income of £11.8m came from the Department of Children, Schools and Families via the Parenting Fund.

When the media has people like Ms Rake on to bash Tory policy on the family or ex-Labour man Ben Summerskill, now of the government-funded Stonewall lobby group, to bash the Tories on gay equality we should know a lot more about their background.

So many organisations dependent upon government money are run by people who please the government.

5.45pm: I'm grateful to Mark Clarke in the comments for pointing out that Fiona Millar - Alastair Campbell's partner - chairs the Family and Parenting Institute.