Anti Racism Charity Might Sue Reform Over Council Support

A charity which aims to kick racism out of sport could sue Reform UK after a council withdrew support for the organisation.

Chris Eynon, the leader of Sunderland City Council, said the local authority would no longer back “politically charged organisations with an agenda”.

He also accused Ged Grebby, chief executive of Show Racism The Red Card, of “stark political bias” over comments he has made criticising Reform.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Grebby said he was expressing his own personal opinion rather than the charity’s, which he insisted has cross-party support.

He said any suggestions that Show Racism The Red Card was a political organisation “could cause huge damage” to the organisation.

Grebby said: “It’s a very serious accusation to say a charity is being party political.

“If Reform are making false accusations against us, our lawyer will look into whether it is libel.”

He added: “I’ve got a right to have my own political views, and I stand by comments I’ve made about Nigel Farage and Reform being dangerous. But as a charity we need to be cross-party.”

He said any suggestion that Show Racism The Red Card is linked to the Labour Party was “absolute nonsense”.

“As a charity we’ve got the support of the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens,” Grebby said. “We’ve always worked with other political parties.”

Sunderland City Council has supported the charity since it was set up 30 years ago.

In the last year, the funding it received from the authority trained 250 teachers and educated 1,675 young people in the local area about tackling racism.

Grebby said the charity had been planning to re-apply for funding from the council, but now there was “no point”.

“The damage will be that we’re unable to provide those programmes in future,” he said.

Asked about Sunderland City Council’s decision on LBC, Reform home affairs spokesman Robert Jenrick refused to criticise them.

He said he had “not seen the evidence” behind the claim that Show Racism The Red Card is a “politically-charged organisation”.

But in a later post on X, Jenrick accused Grebby of being “a left-wing political activist”.

He said: “Residents would be right to question whether this organisation should be supported financially by their council under Mr Grebby’s leadership.

“Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying the wages of political activists like Mr Grebby. If Show Racism The Red Card wants to command public support, and receive public money and charitable status, I’d suggest they look for a new CEO.”

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