The MP, The Charity, and The Unbelievable Cover-Up
Welcome to the surreal world of the League Against Cruel Sports, where governance is optional, accountability is missing, and the chairmanship of Dan Norris reads like a farcical handbook on how to run a charity into the ground.
Act One: Delegating Responsibility—Badly
In a plot twist worthy of Yes, Minister, Norris, who moonlights as both Labour MP and West of England Mayor, managed to add a third role—Chair of the League—to his overburdened calendar. Of course, “add” is a generous term, as Norris promptly outsourced most of his duties to his mayoral special adviser, Alex Mayer. Mayer, who was somehow also chief of staff to Cambridge MP Daniel Zeichner at the time, was privy to confidential League board discussions and circulated on sensitive emails. Transparency? Conflicts of interest? Minor inconveniences, apparently.
For Norris, who rakes in £185,000 across his dual salaries, this unpaid role was clearly a low priority. Even before his election to Westminster in July, Norris’s League engagement was as patchy as his excuses for WECA’s financial mess (more on that later). Yet, in a remarkable display of faith—or folly—the League’s trustees allowed him to step back into the chairmanship in August, two months after his resignation. Why? It’s anyone’s guess.
Act Two: Chaos at WECA
If you thought Norris’s charity work was bad, his performance as West of England Mayor isn’t much better. Under his leadership, the West of England Combined Authority (WECA) has been plunged into special measures, with civil servants flagging financial mismanagement and opaque decision-making. Norris’s defence? Accusing Simon Hoare, the Tory MP who called out the dysfunction, of political bias. Because, in Dan World, nothing is ever his fault.
WECA’s turmoil under Norris raises questions about how he manages—or fails to manage—his numerous roles. How can someone incapable of steering a regional authority be expected to lead a charity in crisis?
Act Three: Trustees or Enablers?
Norris is far from the only problem. The League’s trustees, led by Astrid Clifford and flanked by Ashleigh Fiona Brown and Viktoria Emilova Petrova, have allowed this circus to continue unchecked. Their decision to reinstate Norris as chair, knowing full well his prior dereliction of duty, speaks volumes about their priorities—or lack thereof.
And then there’s acting CEO Chris Luffingham, who ensured Norris was nominated for re-election at the AGM without disclosing his previous failings to members. For an organisation supposedly committed to transparency and ethical leadership, this is hypocrisy of the highest order.
Private Eye’s1 recent exposé of the League highlights that this isn’t a fringe concern; it’s a glaring indictment from respected voices in the media.
The League’s governance failures aren’t just an internal matter; they undermine its credibility as a charity. How can an organisation that holds others to account for animal cruelty expect to be taken seriously when its own house is in such disarray?
Act Four: Silence from the Regulators
The Charity Commission, the body tasked with ensuring charities meet high standards of governance, has been conspicuously silent. One might wonder how such blatant disregard for accountability has gone unnoticed—or unaddressed. Are the regulators turning a blind eye, or are they simply overwhelmed by the scale of dysfunction across the sector?
Final Act: Demand Better
The League Against Cruel Sports is more than just a charity; it’s a promise to protect animals from harm. Yet, under its current leadership, that promise rings hollow. For members, the message is clear: demand better. Challenge the trustees. Insist on transparency. And for the Charity Commission, it’s time to step in and hold this organisation to account. The animals the League claims to protect deserve more than a leadership team that treats its mission as an afterthought.
In the meantime, the League’s members—and the public—can only watch this tragicomedy unfold, wondering whether anyone at the top will finally decide to take their role seriously. For now, the only certainty is that the League remains a masterclass in how not to run a charity.
- League Apart, Private Eye, No. 1638, 6 December 2024 ↩︎
