“UCL Remain in NUS UK” has refused to identify their campaign team to students, facing backlash from members of the Leave campaign.
The Union democracy team claimed in April that members of both campaign teams would be “publicly declared”.
This announcement never came, with the intention that both campaign leads would be announced and revealed to students at last week’s open meeting.
So far only the Leave campaign leads have been formally announced, with their contact details listed on the Union website to encourage students to get involved and ask questions.
This lack of transparency raised concerns amongst the Leave campaign, with one of their leads saying, “If the intention was that both campaigns would be publicly declared and identifiable, then it is extremely concerning that this has not happened in practice before voting opened.”
The Union has claimed this is not breaking the referendum rules, as none of the three Remain campaign members stepped forward to lead.
But the Leave campaign has raised concerns that if any misconduct was to occur within the Remain team, they nor the electorate would be able “to independently verify who is responsible or whether rules are being followed consistently”.
The Union maintains that the Remain camp will be held under “comparable conditions” despite their anonymity, arguing that they still have a campaign budget and are required to follow the Referendum rules.
In an email to the Leave campaign, the Union Democracy team said — “It was certainly our intention that both campaigns would be publicly declared and identifiable, however, members of that campaign team have not come forward officially.”
The Cheese Grater understands that the Deputy Returning Officer will be consulted to determine whether the names of the three Remain campaign members can be publicly disclosed.
The campaign has also faced criticism for deleting comments on their Instagram page, with one student claiming that their comment was removed for challenging the Remain team’s assertion that the NUS “shaped the renters rights bill”.
One member of the Leave team claimed “it clearly shows how the [NUS Remain campaign] is suppressing student voices.”
A Students’ Union spokesperson said:
“We put out an open call for campaign leads to come forward to represent the official Remain and Leave campaigns in line with the approved referendum timeline. No campaign leads came forward for the Remain Affiliated to NUS UK Campaign team, therefore there is no official Remain campaign.”
UCL Remain NUS UK told The Cheese Grater via Instagram:
“To be clear the remain team is and always has been 1 very stressed final year.
“I originally signed up on a whim as I thought I would be part of a team, but it was only me. I originally was not going to do anything towards the campaign, but then I met with the president and thought that students at UCL deserved to hear the alternative point of view, this was before I did my own research into the NUS and investigated why so many people wanted to leave. From that point onwards I made it my goal to be anonymous as I didn't want my name linked to NUS, or to be seen as having the same values and beliefs as them. I was more just a mouthpiece working to put their view forward to UCL students than actually airing my own beliefs.
“I have been deleting comments as I didn't know how to answer it or how to really deal with the negative attention on this account. It hasn't been great for my own mental health sitting there panicking about how I would answer student's genuine anger at an organisation who has done serious harm to student activists and not being able to share that concern with anyone. I have only hidden the messages and can always put them back up on the posts but was trying to act in the best interest of a campaign.”