No Restore Trust candidates were elected to the National Trust’s Council
Members of the National Trust voted to elect members of the organisation’s Council last month, with the results being announced at its AGM on November 2. As in previous years, the ‘anti-woke’ group Restore Trust attempted to use the elections to stage a right wing takeover of the National Trust.
Restore Trust has drawn issue with a number of policies and positions adopted by the National Trust in recent years. In particular, the group has criticised the National Trust’s reports linking some of its properties to slavery and colonialism.
Despite the group having long had extensive coverage and support from the right wing press, Restore Trust has consistently failed to get its candidates elected to the Council, losing comprehensively in 2022 and 2023.
2024, it turns out, was no different. Restore Trust’s six candidates together received a total of 110,853 votes in the election. By contrast, the six successfully elected candidates – all of whom were endorsed by the National Trust’s nominations committee – received 256,308 votes.
As a result, the Restore Trust candidates picked up significantly less than half the votes that the winning candidates received.
Alongside the election to the Council, the AGM also saw National Trust members vote on a number of resolutions regarding the organisation’s policies and practices. Members voted for the National Trust to make 50% of the food in its cafes vegan, and to support the introduction of a new Climate and Nature Bill.
Liberal Democrat MP Roz Savage, who has used a Private Members’ Bill in parliament to propose a Climate and Nature Bill, welcomed the National Trust members’ vote.
She said: “I’m delighted that The National Trust has joined the huge and growing list of backers for the Climate and Nature Bill. It’s abundantly clear to me that restoring Britain’s natural assets, our woods, soils, and rivers, is absolutely key to addressing our climate crisis and the catastrophic decline in populations of our insects, birds, and mammals.”
Savage continued: “I’d really like to ask National Trust members to write to their MPs and ask them to vote for the CAN Bill on 24 January. This is the law we’ve been waiting for.”
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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