The Charity Commission intends to contact the students' union approached by a pro-Europe campaign group requesting to be allowed to campaign to its students against Ukip, as such a move would probably breach rules on political campaigning.
Last month, campaign group British Influence sent an email to an as yet-unidentified university students’ union asking to be allowed access to its students ahead of the 2014 European elections. “We realise that you charity status means that the SU can’t campaign – we would like to do it for you. By getting the young, liberal vote out in such a low turnout election, we can reduce Ukip’s overall share of the vote," the email read.
“We are looking to host a campaign training session on your campus before Christmas – is this something that you and your members would be interested in?”
But far from inviting British Influence onto campus, the student body forwarded the email straight to Ukip, which in turn sent it on to the Charity Commission. Ukip’s chairman Steve Crowther wrote to the Commission’s head of legal services, Kenneth Dibble, asking whether the approach contravened rules on political activity at charities.
The Charity Commission has now responded to Ukip saying that, on the face of it, the sort of campaigning suggested in the email from British Influence should not be carried out by a charity as it does not appear to be supporting the delivery of its charitable purpose.
It says that if approached by the trustees of the students’ union it would refer them to Commission guidance on campaigning and political activity and explain that “they should bear in mind the reputational good name of the charity, when considering whether to involve their charity in this sort of proposal”.
The Charity Commission told civilsociety.co.uk that it has also requested the name of the students’ union concerned. Ukip has so far declined to divulge it.
A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: “As the regulator of charities we feel that it is important that we contact the particular charity in question in order to ascertain that the trustees are aware of their responsibilities with regards to these matters.”
She added that the Charity Commission already does a lot of work with student unions on what they need to consider when campaigning and hiring speakers. “In the lead-up to the 2015 general election we will be contacting them to raise these issues.”
The Charity Commission will not be contacting British Influence about the email. “As we do not regulate British Influence it would not be appropriate for us to contact them,” she said.
British Influence is not a registered charity itself.
Invited to comment on why it had approached the students’ union in this way last week, British Influence’s deputy director Adam Nathan told civilsociety.co.uk that “this was just a clumsily-worded email with no harm intended”.
He did not reply to a further question about whether the same email had been sent to other charities.
