The chief executive of anti-litter charity Keep Britain Tidy stepped down from a government role after concerns were voiced by a minister about one of its funding sources, according to reports.
Allison Ogden-Newton, who was appointed to a non-executive director role at Defra in September last year, left the role after only eight months in May.
According to reporting from the Times, this came after Ogden-Newton had asked nature minister Mary Creagh to support Keep Britain Tidy's cigarette litter campaign.
However, Ogden-Newton’s request was rejected by Creagh, who cited the campaign’s indirect tobacco industry funding as a reason.
Keep Britain Tidy receives grant funding for its smoking-related litter work through CleanStreets CIC, which is in turn funded by major tobacco companies including British American Tobacco, Imperial Brands and JTI.
The charity told the Times that it believed that it had “been clear” about the funding and that it believed its programmes are independent of the tobacco industry.
CleanStreets also affirmed in its most recently filed accounts that its activities “do not involve promoting any tobacco products and, to the contrary, would in various ways emphasise the negative environmental impacts of cigarette litter”.
The CIC also noted that its board “operates entirely independently to its funders who have no involvement in the direction or work of CleanStreets.”
A spokesperson for Keep Britain Tidy said: “Allison Ogden-Newton has stepped down from her role as a non-executive director at Defra by mutual consent.
“She remains fully focused on her responsibilities as chief executive of Keep Britain Tidy.”
A Defra spokesperson also confirmed that Ogden-Newton had stepped down from her role at Defra “by mutual consent”.
Keep Britain Tidy has received funding from CleanStreets CIC since 2022, with £9.6m received in the first year.
On its website, the charity says: “The grant from CleanStreets is ring-fenced and is only used for our work to tackle cigarette litter. It has not been used to fund any of our other campaigns, programmes or activities.”
It adds: “As an environmental charity, Keep Britain Tidy’s focus is on the environmental damage caused by litter. The most effective way to stop cigarette litter is for people to stop smoking.”
