campaigning guidance booklet -...
TRANSCRIPT
Campaigning Guidance Booklet
2015 UK General Election
Contents
Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 3
Background to the 2015 General Election ......................................................................... 4
The Date ........................................................................................................................... 4
The Politics ........................................................................................................................ 4
The Policy Background ...................................................................................................... 4
The Legion’s campaign during the 2015 election ............................................................. 5
Your role in our campaign ................................................................................................. 6
How to find election candidates ......................................................................................... 6
Meeting with and writing to election candidates ................................................................. 6
Key messages to get across .............................................................................................. 7
What can you ask candidates to do? ................................................................................. 8
Things to consider: meeting our legal obligations ........................................................... 9
Charity and Electoral Law .................................................................................................. 9
The Lobbying Act 2014 ..................................................................................................... 9
Implications: the DOs and DON’Ts of Legion Campaigning .............................................. 9
Further Guidance ............................................................................................................ 10
Suggested Text: Meeting Request ................................................................................... 12
Introduction
Dear Members, supporters and friends,
With the last of our combat troops set to leave Afghanistan in December 2014, more than a
decade of British involvement in major conflicts will soon come to an end, and with that, a
great deal of public and media interest in the welfare of our Armed Forces.
However, the fact remains that our Servicemen and women will continue to be engaged in a
variety of military operations around the world, while their families, injured veterans and
recent Service leavers will continue to need specialist care and support back home. It is
vitally important, therefore, that each of us seeks to ‘do our bit’ to ensure that the welfare
needs of the Armed Forces community remain high on the political agenda.
To this end, the Legion has produced its own 2015 ‘Manifesto’, which outlines the key
actions that we would like the next government to take to improve the health, finances and
wellbeing of our serving personnel, veterans and their families. The task for each of us now
is to ensure that these policy recommendations feature in each of the political parties’ own
election manifestos, and that we generate as much support as possible for our proposals
among Members of Parliament, Prospective Parliamentary Candidates, local councillors,
Assembly Members and representatives of the devolved governments.
To aide you in your campaigning efforts, we have produced this helpful Campaigning
Guidance Booklet, which provides information on important dates, key lines to take, and how
to campaign within Charity and Electoral Commission guidelines. It also provides a template
campaign letter, which you can either choose to amend or send in its current form to your
local election candidates.
Next year’s General Election will without doubt be one of the most open and unpredictable in
recent political history. However, I am certain that, with your help, whoever forms the next
government will be committed to building a better future for our Armed Forces community.
Kind regards,
Laura Pett
Public Affairs and Campaigns Manager
Background to the 2015 General Election
The Date
The date of the next General Election is set for Thursday 7th May 2015.
The political party, or coalition of political parties, that wins the majority of the 650 seats up
for election in the House of Commons will go on to form the new government and be
responsible for the operation and welfare of our Armed Forces.
The Politics
Next year’s General Election is set to be one of the most open and unpredictable in post-war
political history. This presents both a challenging and exciting opportunity for the Legion to
exercise its campaigning voice.
Current polling suggests that if the election were held today, the opposition Labour Party
would likely win with a modest majority, given their small polling lead. However, the final
standings of the two main parties will also be dependent on their smaller rivals. This is
because the Labour Party is currently tussling for left-wing votes with the SNP in Scotland
and the Liberal Democrats and Green Party in England, whilst both the Conservative Party
and the Labour Party appear to be locked in a contest with the UK Independence Party
(UKIP) for votes in England and Wales, judging by the latter’s recent polling success.
All this has led many commentators to suggest that there could well be either a Conservative
minority/small-majority government or a Labour minority/small-majority government, or even
another coalition government involving any number of the smaller parties and either the
Conservatives or Labour.
The Policy Background
The 2015 General Election comes at a time of great transition for the UK Armed Forces
community.
The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and rebasing of troops from Germany, along with
the restructuring of the Regular Armed Forces and projected increase in the numbers of
Reservists, means that the footprint, composition and needs of our beneficiary group is
changing.
As a result, a number of the Legion’s manifesto policy recommendations are designed to
support personnel who are just making the transition from Service to civilian life, or may be
struggling to adapt to a life in ‘civvy-street’ as a result of Service-related injuries.
The Legion’s campaign during the 2015 election
The Legion is calling for the next Government to adopt the policy recommendations
contained within our 2015 General Election manifesto, which is entitled Building a better
future for our Armed Forces community.
Our top five policy proposals (in no particular order) are to:
Enable all Armed Forces widows to retain their pension should they decide to later
remarry.
Ensure that all veterans with hearing problems caused by Service can have their
MOD-provided hearing aids serviced and replaced at no cost, and that working-age
veterans can access higher grade hearing aids, including ‘in-the-ear’ aids.
Protect the lifetime income of injured veterans by uprating their military compensation
by the higher of earnings, inflation or 2.5% (the ‘triple lock’).
Offer veterans evidence-based treatment for mental health problems within a
maximum of 18 weeks from referral, provided by practitioners with an understanding
of veterans’ needs, in line with the Government’s commitment to parity of esteem
between physical and mental health.
Include spouses and Early Service Leavers in the resettlement support provided by
the Career Transition Partnership, and its successor.
A further seven policy recommendations are contained within the extended, online-only
version of our manifesto. Both versions of this publication, along with supporting papers, can
be found on our website at www.britishlegion.org.uk/manifesto.
The proposals contained within the manifesto are the result of an extensive grass-roots
consultation with Legion members, volunteers and staff, whose expertise and close contact
with beneficiaries has been vital in helping the campaigns team put together a shortlist of
policy recommendations.
The Legion’s 2015 Manifesto was officially launched on Friday 19th September 2014, and
was later showcased at each of the three main UK political parties’ conferences in turn. In
addition to this, all members of Parliament have been sent a hard copy of the short
manifesto edition, and have been encouraged to visit our website to learn more about the full
list of recommendations.
Your role in our campaign
Why your voice is important
With the 2015 General Election impossible to predict, MPs and Prospective Parliamentary
Candidates (PPCs) will be paying particular attention to the views of individuals residing
within their constituency.
As one of the largest membership organisations in the UK and with thousands of committed
supporters spread up and down the country, we know that each and every one of you can
help us to get our message out there.
While the Legion’s campaigns team will continue to engage with Ministers, government
officials and members of the political parties’ policy teams at the national level, it is important
not to underestimate the power of your local campaigning voice. Remember; even if a
candidate appears to have very little chance of being elected, many MPs began their political
lives as ‘paper candidates’ and some candidates may already be local councillors.
How to find election candidates
If you are unsure who your current MP is, you can find lots of relevant information from
Parliament’s website: http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/.
If you would like to know who is standing for election within your local constituency, the three
main UK parties include lists of their confirmed PPCs on their websites:
For Conservative Party candidates, please visit:
www.conservatives.com/OurTeam/Prospective_Parliamentary_Candidates
For Labour Party candidates, please visit:
www.labour.org.uk/people/filter/c/candidate#main-content
For Liberal Democrat Party candidates, please visit:
www.libdems.org.uk/general_election_candidates
To find out which candidates are standing for other political parties, such as Plaid Cymru in
Wales, it is worth exploring their respective party websites for further details, although you
can probably find a list of your local candidates with a quick web search as well.
Meeting with and writing to election candidates
The best way to ensure that election candidates are fully aware of the Legion’s policy asks is
to meet with them face-to-face. This could be something as simple as a catch-up over
coffee with your local MP or a candidate that you know well.
If you decide that you would like to arrange something, remember to be quite formal in your
request or invitation, and to make it clear to the MP or PPC why a meeting to discuss our
manifesto would be helpful to them, for instance by learning more about the needs of our
Armed Forces community and the work that their local Legion branch or Area Office is doing
to help meet this need.
You can find some sample text for your meeting request, which you are encouraged to
personalise, at the end of this booklet.
Remember, MPs and PPCs will get a lot of meeting requests in the run up to the election, so
do not be disheartened if you get no response. There’s no harm in following up on your
request a couple of weeks after you sent your original letter or email to check that it was
received, and to ask directly whether a meeting will be possible.
If you are able to meet with your local MP and PPCs, it would be great if you could let the
campaigns team know about the meeting so that we can then record that information and
provide any supporting materials in advance of your meeting, including a hard copy of our
‘Top 5’ manifesto. We’d also be interested in hearing how your meeting actually went so that
we can follow up on any points raised, if necessary.
You can get in touch by emailing: [email protected]. If you are based in
Wales, please contact the Public Affairs Manager for Wales, Peter Evans, via
Key messages to get across
In addition to the manifesto background information given earlier in this document, and of
course the proposals outlined in our manifesto and supporting documents (which can both
be found on our website), you might want to consider mentioning some of the following
points, which provide additional context to our recommendations.
The Legion was formed almost a century ago, in the aftermath of the First World
War. In this Centenary period, it is fitting that we should continue our long and proud
campaigning tradition by launching our 2015 Manifesto and highlighting the
continuing need of our Servicemen and women, past and present, and their families.
Since the Legion last produced a manifesto back in 2010, a great deal has happened
in terms of Armed Forces welfare. For a start, the Legion successfully campaigned to
have the Armed Forces Covenant enshrined into law and this is now beginning to
have a real and positive impact across all government departments, in all sorts of
policy areas. The Legion has also overseen every local authority in Great Britain sign
a Community Covenant, which are bringing the principles of the Covenant to life at a
local level.
Whilst the welfare of our Armed Forces community is gradually improving, there
remains a lot more that we can, and must, do. The Legion’s 2014 household survey
of veterans and their families, for instance, revealed that working age veterans are
less likely than the general population to be employed and more likely to report
suffering from hearing difficulties, depression and back and limb pain. A small but
significant minority of the working age community are also struggling financially, and
there remain clear instances where those with a Service related illness or injury are
not receiving the special consideration that they deserve.
It is for this reason that the Legion has produced another manifesto, which contains a
number of policy recommendations that will help to address these very issues. Our
manifesto should therefore be seen as a blueprint for building a better future for our
Armed Forces community, with five key policies that will make a big difference to
thousands of people’s lives.
What can you ask candidates to do?
The main purpose of meeting with local election candidates is to inform them of our policy
recommendations and to raise-awareness of the ongoing needs of the Armed Forces
community. There are, however, a couple of specific asks that you can make of them.
For instance, you could ask that they consider:
Writing to their party leader to ask that the party formerly support our policy
proposals and adopt as many of our recommendations as possible;
Raising awareness of our manifesto and the recommendations contained within it by
speaking about our publication in the Chamber, holding a Parliamentary debate on
the issues raised in our manifesto, or asking a Parliamentary Question on a
recommendation of particular interest to them (this particular ask will obviously only
be applicable to sitting MPs).
Things to consider: meeting our legal obligations
Charity and Electoral Law
Charity Law dictates that charities cannot be established for political purposes and must
never engage in party political activities. However, charities can still be political in so far as
this enables them to achieve their charitable objectives e.g. by campaigning on issues that
directly affect the welfare of their beneficiaries.
There may, therefore, be circumstances when spending on activities that are in pursuit of
charitable purposes means that charities will also have to comply with Electoral Law, which
regulates how much ‘non-party campaigners’ can do and spend during an election period.
The Lobbying Act 2014
Part 2 of the Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union
Administration Act (Lobbying Act) came into force on 19th September 2014. The Act largely
builds on the provisions of existing Electoral Law, as set out in the Political Parties, Elections
and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA), but it has a greater focus on what ‘non-party
campaigners’ (including charities, voluntary organisations and faith groups) are able to do
during the ‘regulated period’.
For General Elections, the regulated period usually applies for one full year before the date
of the election. However, because of the timing of the 2014 Scottish Referendum, the
regulated period for the 2015 General Election has been shortened and will instead apply
from Friday 19th September 2014 until Thursday 7th May 2015.
The Lobbying Act has brought in a couple of significant changes for non-party campaigners
in the run up to the 2015 General Election. Namely, the Act reduces the amount an
organisation can spend on campaigning activities, while increasing the range of activities
that count towards that spending limit. In addition, it also introduces a limit on what can be
spent in any one constituency.
Implications: the DOs and DON’Ts of Legion Campaigning
The two most important rules for ensuring legal charitable campaigning are:
Remain independent of any candidate or political party
Do not seek to influence, or be perceived to influence, voter intentions
Remain independent of any candidate or political party
This effectively means that you must be careful not to be seen as engaging with any one
particular candidate or political party over others.
Whilst campaigning that is directed at Parliamentarians, Prospective Parliamentary
Candidates, local councillors, Assembly members or representatives from the devolved
governments is not directly covered by the new rules, every effort should be made to uphold
the charity’s political neutrality and spirit of constructive engagement with politicians from
across the political spectrum.
In practice, this means:
Meeting with, and writing to, candidates and political party representatives from as
wide a political spectrum as possible, within reason. This does not mean that the
Legion must approach candidates from extremist parties.
Not using official Legion channels, such as branch websites or social media
accounts, to publicise support or opposition to individual candidates or political
parties, either explicitly or implicitly.
Not using branch premises to hold meetings for particular political parties, whether
these events are policy focused or not.
Do not seek to influence, or be perceived to influence, voter intentions
This essentially means that your local campaign should not engage in vote-seeking activities
such as rallies, speeches, or ‘hustings’, which are generally intended to persuade voters to
vote for a particular politician or party based on their support or non-support for our policies.
It also means that, should a candidate or political party express their support for one of our
manifesto policies, perhaps as a result of your local campaigning, you should not seek to
publicise their support, no matter how much we might welcome this endorsement. This is
because if one candidate or political party in your constituency has not declared their
support, we might ‘reasonably be regarded’ as intending to influence members of the public
to vote against that particular candidate or political party.
Finally, it also means that under no circumstances should individuals produce their own
Legion branded material based on our manifesto during the regulated period. This is
because such publications are considered ‘election material’, which means that if they are
aimed at or read by members of the public, and not just politicians, all costs associated with
its production – including staff time – must be formally accounted for. The Legion is already
required to comply with a strict spending limit of £9,570 per constituency for its manifesto,
which includes website hosting costs, staff time, print production costs, etc. If a branch were
to then produce its own manifesto material, these costs would need to be accounted for
centrally and would count towards this limit. Furthermore, if only one branch were to do this,
the Legion would then be involved in what is known as ‘focused constituency campaigning’,
which brings with it its own administrative difficulties.
Further Guidance
The Electoral Commission, which monitors UK elections and ensures compliance with
Electoral Law, has put together a number of helpful briefings on how to campaign within both
Electoral and Charity Law. You can find their full list of briefing papers on their website:
www.electoralcommission.org.uk.
However, if you follow the guidance given in this booklet, and focus your campaigning
exclusively on politicians, you should find yourself safely within the rules and well equipped
for campaign success!
Thank you for your support; and happy campaigning.
Appendix A
Suggested Text: Meeting Request
[Insert name of MP]
House of Commons
Westminster
London
SW1A 0AA
Dear [Mr/Mrs ………….]
You should by now have received a copy of The Royal British Legion’s 2015 Manifesto,
Building a better future for our Armed Forces community.
As a supporter of the Legion and the work that it does in support of serving men and women,
veterans and their families, I hope that you will have read the Legion’s policy
recommendations with interest and feel able to champion many, if not all, of their proposals.
Over the years, much has been to done to improve the welfare of our Armed Forces
community, but there remains more that politicians can, and must, do. The Legion’s 2014
household survey of veterans and their families, for instance, revealed that working age
veterans are less likely than the general population to be employed and more likely to report
suffering from hearing difficulties, depression and back and limb pain. A small but significant
minority of the working age community are also struggling financially, and there remain clear
instances where those with a Service related illness or injury are not receiving the special
consideration that they deserve.
It is for this reason that I write today to ask that you support the policy recommendations
made in the Legion’s 2015 Manifesto and do all that you can to seem them realised. With
your support, I’m confident that we can address many of the issues identified above and help
to improve the lives of thousands of serving and ex-Service people, as well as their
dependents.
I would very much like to meet with you to discuss some of the manifesto policy proposals in
more detail, and I would be grateful if you could suggest a convenient time to do so. I would
also be happy to update you on what the Legion is doing locally to assist veterans and their
families.
Members of the Armed Forces, and their dependents, are required to sacrifice much in the
service of their country; it is only right that politicians of all parties commit to ‘do their bit’ to
see that their welfare needs are properly met.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,