GB News boycotter group ‘break company law’ with ‘political activity’ Tories claim | UK | News
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Stop Funding Hate, registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC), has called on companies such as Sainsburys, Halfords, Tu Clothing and Bayer to stop advertising on GB News. Now, ten Tory MPs have written to Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to start an investigatation into Stop Funding Hate.
The letter, also sent to CIC regulator Louise Smyth, said Stop Funding Hate advocates a “cancel culture” by pressuring firms into pulling advertisements from the fledgling broadcaster.
Led by Brendan Clarke Smith, Tory MP for Bassetlaw, the letter said: “We are concerned that since 2017 the campaign group Stop Funding Hate has been exploiting the prestige that is afforded by CIC status, and the privileged access that CICs have to many grants of taxpayers’ money, for overtly political means…
“As it continued to whip up a cancel culture, and pressures brands into boycotting news outlets, we believe it is important to reassess whether Stop Funding Hate is the sort of organisation that represents the best of Britain’s charitable sector.
“Whilst it is not clear to us, nor to our constituents, whose interest an attack on media plurality is meant to be serving, what we are certain of is that its current tactics are against the spirit and the letter of CIC legislation surrounding political activity.”
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In an attack on Stop Funding Hate, the letter continues to accuse the CIC of “doing the exact inverse of what CICs are permitted to do”.
Official guidance holds a CIC may “engage in political activities if its engagement in them can reasonably be considered as incidental to activities which a reasonable person might consider are carried on for the benefit of the community, and which are not them selves incidental to political activities”.
The letter than added: “They are advocating against a group in society, namely hundreds of thousands who tune into GB News daily, and the 60 per cent of the population who do not want to see brands engage in cancel culture boycotts of TV stations.
“’They proactively advocate against a group in society – the hundreds of thousands who tune into GB News.”
Express.co.uk has contacted Stop Funding Hate for comment
The Department for Business said: “We expect all CICs to act in accordance with legal obligations, and they should not be formed for political purposes, or have engagement in political activities among their main objectives.
“Decisions about whether a company meets the criteria to become – and continue to be – a CIC lie with the inde pendent regulator who can investigate complaints and take action.”
It comes after reports emerged in June saying the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust gave £50,000 to Stop Funding Hate.
The charity said the sum was “a restricted grant” for a project “to encourage responsible media through an ethical advertising code”.
It also said it takes “great care with our grant-making and we carry out detailed due diligence and monitoring”.
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In June, shortly after GB News launched, founder Andrew Neil raged against Stop Funding Hate’s boycott.
He said on June 13: “So far not a single example of hate has been given in evidence to justify the boycott.
“But this programme issues a standing invitation to the boss of any company or agency that thinks to the contrary — to come on air.
“We’ll look at your examples and discuss them together. Our studio door is open.”
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