RSPB insists it is ‘not entering politics’ after accusing Government of lies
The charity apologised for lashing out on Twitter at plans to scrap water pollution restrictions for housing developments.
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Your support makes all the difference.The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has denied it is wading into politics after an “angry” social media post accusing the Government of lying about environmental commitments.
The conservation charity lashed out on Twitter at plans to scrap water pollution restrictions for housing developments in England.
It later issued an apology and said the post had fallen below its own standards.
The post accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Housing Secretary Michael Gove and Environment Secretary Therese Coffey of saying they would not weaken environmental protections.
It went on: “And yet that’s just what you are doing. You lie, and you lie, and you lie again.
“And we’ve had enough.”
RSPB chief executive Beccy Speight said she did not approve the post and it did not go through “normal protocols”, as she declared the charity is “not entering politics”.
Current restrictions prevent housing developments from going ahead that eco-groups say will increase the level of nutrient pollution in waterways.
The Government said these rules are a legacy of EU membership and it wants to remove them by amending upcoming legislation in the hope of allowing up to 100,000 more homes to be built before 2030.
Ms Speight told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “There’s lots of things happening at the moment and one of them is this proposal from the Government to amend the habitat regulations, to disapply the requirements for nutrient neutrality.
“The reason that has made us so frustrated and led to that original tweet is that it completely goes against the commitments that the Government has made many times in the past, not to weaken environmental protections, most recently when the Retained EU Law Bill was going through in the summer.
“This completely contravenes those commitments and that’s what’s led us to be so frustrated and so angry about the proposed amendment coming through.
“The reason that we issued our apology is that we do believe that the nature of public discourse does matter and that we have a role to play in that, and that we campaign on policy, not on people.
“So, the framing of that tweet, where we called out individual people, we felt was incorrect and inappropriate, and we apologise for that.”
Conservative MP Mark Jenkinson claimed the RSPB is becoming “a political campaigning organisation”, calling for regulator the Charity Commission to strip it of its charity status.
A commission spokesperson said: “We are aware of social media activity by the RSPB and will assess this matter to determine if there is a regulatory role for the commission.”