With a General Election due to take place on Thursday 12 December, it’s a chance for us to raise our voices about the changes we want to see for people affected by MS.
However, the Lobbying Act, introduced in 2014, set legal restrictions around what charities can and can’t do during an election period. This is to ensure that no individual or organisation can have influence over an election. As the MS Society, our staff, and you, our wonderful volunteers, we have to be really careful to not appear to be influencing the way anyone may vote.
To do this, we must be clearly independent and make sure any involvement we have with political parties is neutral and balanced.
What does this mean for you? To comply with the Lobbying Act, there are some important things you should consider while volunteering on behalf of the MS Society:
If campaigning in a personal capacity for a party or candidate, don’t identify your connections to the MS Society. This includes things like not wearing your MS Society t-shirt while canvassing, or mentioning anecdotally your links to the charity and why they inform your views.
Make sure to identify that the views voiced on social media are your own and not a reflection of the MS Society. Social media channels such as Twitter are a great way of engaging people and getting messages out. However, if your account identifies you as being connected to the charity, you need to be very careful not to be seen to be endorsing a party or candidate, as any political bias shown could be seen as the MS Society, not just you, backing that party or candidate.
Be balanced in your interactions with candidates. You may have the chance to speak to candidates in public at a hustings meeting or something similar. It’s natural to want to discuss your personal experiences, but if you are raising an MS Society campaign as a MS Society volunteer it is important you try to, if possible, direct the same question to all candidates rather than just one to be fair and balanced.
Click on this link for more information on the Lobbying Act.
Make your vote count
Don’t forget, there are various ways for you to vote in December’s election. If yours, or a loved one's MS, makes it difficult for you to vote in person you may wish to place a postal vote, proxy vote or emergency proxy vote.
For more information on ways of voting, please see this page on ‘Ways to vote’.
Further information If you would like to speak with a member of the External Relations team about how to manage any potential conflict of interest, or about voting, please contact our External Relations Officer, Joseph Brunwin
