To the matter of ‘inappropriate’ party political tweets – from a rather unlikely culprit. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has come under fire after it took to Twitter last year with a rather odd campaign post. The charity took a fierce stance against proposals from the then-Tory government to scrap water pollution restrictions for housing sites in England – and decided to channel its fury online at Conservative ministers. In a tweet written in August 2023, the RSPB accused former prime minister Rishi Sunak, ex-housing secretary Michael Gove and former-environment secretary Therese Coffey for U-turning on environmental protections, slamming the trio as ‘liars’. Crikey.
The furious post contained a photo of all three politicians, with ‘LIARS!’ emblazoned across the image in red. Tagging the former government ministers, the charity account fumed: ‘You said you wouldn’t weaken environmental protections. And yet that’s just what you are doing. You lie, and you lie, and you lie again. And we’ve had enough.’ Good heavens. Talk about pulling no punches…
The organisation quickly faced backlash, with ex-Tory MP Mark Jenkinson claiming the RSPB was turning into a ‘political campaigning organisation’ – and even calling for the charities watchdog to strip it of its charity status. At the time, the company’s chief exec Becky Speight apologised for the post, adding that it was wrong to name individual politicians and insisted the charity was ‘not entering politics’.
And now the Charity Commission has blasted the organisation’s post, noting in a report published today that: ‘We found that the tone and nature of RSPB’s post was inappropriate and had not been signed off at the appropriate level within the charity.’ But the watchdog hasn’t gone so far as to sanction the charity, claiming the RSPB has taken ‘sufficient remedial action’ by deleting the post, apologising and taking action to ensure it wouldn’t engage in ‘party political tweets’. Orlando Fraser, chairman of the Commission, pledged this year that the watchdog will not be ‘misused or weaponised’ in the culture wars from within politics, or the sector itself. It’s a warning to the charity – and any others considering such antics – that next time the outcome may not be quite so lenient…
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