Referendum Ruling 30/10/2025

Deputy Returning Officer’s Ruling on Instagram post - 30th October 2025

I have been asked to rule on whether an Instagram post from the No to NUS Disaffiliation breaches the election rules, specifically Rule 3 under General Conduct, requiring that campaigners run fair, honest and transparent campaigns.

I have been asked to consider the following three areas in relation to both factual accuracy and transparency:

• Acknowledgment of a genocide

  • I have seen evidence on the NUS UK Instagram which clearly acknowledges this. I therefore dismiss this ground of complaint.

• Leading a campaign for divestment

  • While I find it tenuous to suggest that NUS are currently leading a campaign for universities to divest from the arms trade based on the evidence I can find, I have found evidence that NUS do have a track record of divestment campaigning. I therefore do not accept this ground of complaint as sufficient to constitute a rule breach.

• Opening a call for evidence

  • This is factually accurate, and the call for evidence mentioned can be found here. I therefore dismiss this ground of complaint.

However, with the post being the complaint subject, I exercise my discretion to further consider an additional area to constitute a rule breach:

• Supporting campaigns/mobilising support in relation to students from Gaza

  • While this is factually correct, in that NUS did support and mobilise on this, this campaign was started by Cambridge SU and the sabbatical officer team. Given the context of this referendum on Cambridge SU’s NUS affiliation, this appears to be important context. I consider the absence of this context and acknowledgement of the role of Cambridge SU in mobilising the national campaigning here to constitute a lack of transparency which is a rule breach under the aforementioned Rule 3.

I have upheld a single ground of complaint. As I have not upheld any complaints relating to factual accuracy, I rule that the post does not need to be removed. However, I rule that a clarifying point on the context of NUS’s campaigning on Gaza students, which properly reflects the role played by Cambridge SU and specifically its officers in starting this campaign, be made. This should be in the form of an amendment to the caption, and a story post which highlights this.