The Green Party’s Bristol mayoral candidate has apologised and removed a social media post after a charity complained it appeared to show its endorsement.
Sandy Hore-Ruthven’s Instagram message contained two photos used by his campaign without permission with him pictured with members of Bristol Horn Youth Concern, which helps to give disadvantaged young people a bright future.
Director Khalil Aden Abdi asked the candidate to delete it because it could wrongly tie his organisation to a political campaign, potentially breaching the law and Charity Commission guidance.
Mr Hore-Ruthven says the post did not name and was not an endorsement by Khalil’s group and that the photos, which were chosen by one of his team who thought they would be suitable, were taken down as requested.
The Instagram post on March 1 came to light after the Local Democracy Reporting Service last week revealed Labour incumbent Marvin Rees, who is standing for reelection, deleted two tweets that included the names of local charities alongside what were later clarified as “personal endorsements”.
Speaking about the Green candidate’s post, Khalil said: “I was shocked when I saw the photos because they did not have permission to use them.
“The young people in the pictures gave consent to Bristol Horn Youth Concern to use their pictures only for the Targeted Youth Support project.
“I emailed Sandy Hore-Ruthven and asked him to remove the post, which he did.
“He apologised, said it was a mistake and that he should not have used the photos without permission.
“It was very embarrassing because everyone recognised us, and I do not want people to make assumptions that we are in full support of his campaign and party – we are a charity organisation, not a political organisation.”
He said the photos included a Bristol City Council officer who also had not given permission to reproduce them for the election campaign.
Bristol Horn Youth Concern receives funding from a number of sources, including Mr Hore-Ruthven’s charity Creative Youth Network.
Asked to comment on the deleted post, the Green candidate said: “It was only used on Insta and, as you can see, there is no mention of endorsement of my campaign by Horn Youth Concern but simply an illustration of some of the work I have done in Bristol, therefore I am not aware that it breaks any rules.
“The photo was chosen by one of my team who has access to my photos and thought they would be suitable.
“Khalil raised with me that he did not want to be included in the photo although he recognised it was not an endorsement, so I apologised and removed the post.
“However, at no point is Horn Youth Concern mentioned, named or any indication given they endorsed my campaign.
“This is not something we would do.”
As reported last week, Mr Rees’s official Twitter account deleted two tweets that appeared to show charities’ support, including one including a quote from former Watershed CEO Dick Penny, which contained the name of the arts venue he led for 20 years.
Following complaints by Twitter users and a statement from Watershed that it had nothing to do with the endorsement and that Mr Penny had not had a role there since March 2020, the tweet was removed and re-posted without naming the charity.
A spokesperson for Mr Rees’s campaign said all endorsements were in a personal capacity.
The other tweet included supportive comments from Voscur’s “equalities manager” which was taken down after its CEO posted that the employee named had not worked there for three years.
Mr Rees and Mr Hore-Ruthven are two of nine candidates to be Bristol mayor at the local elections on Thursday (May 6).
