UK Democracy Bulletin, June 2026

Issue #81 — June 2026

Monthly news, jobs, grants and gossip from across the democracy sector, brought to you by the UK Democracy Network. Read by 450+ UK democracy organisations. We read everyone’s newsletters & research so you don’t have to. If you want us to cover yours, let us know: james@democracynetwork.org.uk

How you can get involved right now! Do these things 👇

Highlights

Democracy Network hiring Network Director
Demos warns of impacts of election chatbot issues
Open Britain call for inquiry into Russian interference in UK democratic systems
Good Law Project to mount legal challenge on trans rights
Spotlight on Corruption call for political finance reform as overseas donations surge

#DemocracyJobs

Featured Job Listings across the Democracy Sector. View the full database of upcoming job listings here — have we missed any? Add them via this form.

Rolling deadlines

Multiple roles: Association of Democratic Services Officers
Rolling deadline: Director of Policy and Impact at Demos (c. £80,000)

Featured upcoming roles

Apply by June 8: Lobby Day Project Manager at Economic Change Unit (£15,000 contract)
Apply by June 14: Democracy Network Director at The Politics Project (£60,000–70,000)
Apply by June 14: Director, Finance and Commercial at IPSA (£110,000–126,000)
Apply by June 15: Safe Sick Pay Campaign Director at The Centre for Progressive Change (£66,000–£76,000)
Apply by June 17: Telephone Outreach Agent at Labour for a New Democracy (£13.45/hr)
Apply by June 20: Education Programme Manager at The Politics Project (£40,000–50,000)
Apply by June 20: Partnerships & Advocacy Manager at The Politics Project (£40,000–50,000)
Apply by June 21: Freelance Teacher Consultants (£300 per day)
Apply by June 22: Campaign Director at 4 Day Week (£37,000)
Apply by July 20: Senior Programmes & Communications Manager at Patchwork Foundation (£35,000)

Could you lead the Network?

We are hiring a new Network Director to join the Democracy Network team.

We are looking for a new entrepreneurial leader to relaunch and build the next phase of the UK Democracy Network: a national network that helps organisations working to strengthen democracy across the UK connect, collaborate and coordinate more effectively.

This is a rare opportunity to shape a growing national network at a moment of major democratic and political change. The Network already has strong foundations, sector backing, and three years of core funding secured. The next step is building it into an independent, trusted and influential organisation that helps the democracy sector work together more effectively.

Find out more and apply via CharityJobs.

Funding & Grants

New grants awarded, funds opening, and money flowing into the work

BBC Children in Need opens Core Grants Programme for organisations working with young people

BBC Children in Need are opening up grants for up to three years covering essential running costs including management, HR, communications, evaluation and governance. There is no application deadline, but applicants must speak with their local grants team before submitting an Expression of Interest; applications of £15,000 or less per year receive quicker decisions. Apply here.

Events & Convenings

What’s coming up: summits, festivals, training, coworking and gatherings worth turning up to

Regular Democracy Drinks in Edinburgh

Involve’s Kelly McBride and Paul Hirmis are running regular democracy drinks events in Edinburgh, check their Luma events page for the latest. Contact Involve for more information.

ODI Global and Westminster Foundation for Democracy convene dialogue on gender parity and democratic backlash

The in-person event on Tuesday 9 June at ODI Global’s London offices brings together global governance experts and elected politicians to explore what gender parity can do for democracy in an age of backlash and democratic erosion. Professor Mona Lena Krook will mark the publication of her new book, Elect Women for a Change, with further speakers to be confirmed. Register here or via the ODI event page; contact Emilie Tant with any questions.

Upcoming conference on democratic futures and innovation, 6–8 July

The Participatory and Deliberative Democracy Specialist Group of the Political Studies Association, and the Centre for Democratic Futures are joining forces to revive, for the first time since 2018, a participatory and deliberative democracy conference. This year’s theme is Democratic Innovations, Democratic Futures. Register now for the July conference.

Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution launches series of talks on threats to democracy

As part of their Democracy Under Threat series, BRLSI will be hosting an all-day conference. The special event will feature Wera Hobhouse MP, pollster John Curtice, and Professors Andrew Blick, Alan Renwick, Paul D’Anieri and Rajan Menon, among others. View the full programme here.

movements@manchester hosts annual Alternative Futures & Popular Protest conference

The international, cross-disciplinary conference on social movements and protest runs from 15 to 17 June at the University of Manchester, with three days of panels and discussions for academics, researchers and practitioners working on social change. Registration closed on 1 June, but the full programme remains available at the movements@manchester conference page.

Wine and Wotsits returns to Newspeak House for summer 2026

Alison Goldsworthy and Kate Norgrove’s pecha-kucha gathering of campaigners returns to Newspeak House on Tuesday 23 June from 6:30pm, with first-wave speakers including Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff (Fuller Project), Alex Lloyd Hunter (Dadshift) and Amil Khan (Valent); 120 in-person tickets and 100 virtual, and previous editions have sold out fast. Book here.

IP-PAD hosts “Becoming Political” conference on adolescence and the future of democracy, 11 June

The free Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Adolescence & Democracy one-day conference at Senate House, University of London brings the Marie Curie Doctoral Network together with academics and policymakers to explore youth political attitudes, the impact of social media and AI, and civic education, with speakers including Billie Dunne (Electoral Commission), Dan Lawes (My Life My Say), and James Sloam (Royal Holloway). Register here.

Association for Citizenship Teaching annual conference returns to the V&A, 3 July

Association for Citizenship Teaching’s full-day Teaching Citizenship Conference on Friday 3 July at the V&A South Kensington focuses on “Responding to a changing world,” with workshops covering the new statutory Citizenship curriculum at KS1 and KS2, Votes at 16, media literacy and the new GCSE specification. Free for ACT individual, primary and school members. Book here.

Research, Reports & Tools

Fresh thinking, new evidence and practical resources to put to use

Demos warns AI chatbots get UK election information wrong a third of the time

Demos’ new report tested leading AI models during the 2026 Scottish pre-election window finding 34.1% of responses contained factual errors, including wrong election dates, faulty voter ID guidance, a hallucinated candidate, and fabricated expenses and nepotism scandals. Accompanying polling suggests one in five UK adults (around 10 million people) used an AI chatbot to find information ahead of the May local and devolved elections, while 49% do not trust these services on election matters, the same level as social media. Authors Jamie Hancock, Senior Researcher in Digital Policy at Demos, and Azzurra Moores, Associate Director for Information Ecosystems, are now calling on government to close the regulatory gap. Read the report here.

International Centre for Sustainability launches new paper on First-Past-the-Post and policy scrutiny

Launched last week in the House of Lords, the paper by Dr Pravar Petkar, Head of Strengthening Democracy Desk at ICFS, with Dr Jyoti Yadav and Surbhi Chakraborty of the Pahlé India Foundation, argues that First Past The Post adversely affects policy scrutiny in both the UK and India through case studies of parliamentary agenda setting, the committee system, and the operation of the whips. The authors call for procedural reforms including a House of Commons Business Committee and changes to the role of the whips, arguing these are needed alongside electoral reform to support Parliament’s democratic function in an increasingly fragmented multi-party system. Read the paper here or contact Dr Petkar at pravar@icfs.org.uk.

Open Britain calls for public inquiry into foreign interference in UK politics

Open Britain’s new report, Russian Interference in British Politics, published on 28 May, notes that while the US, France, Germany, Canada and the EU have all established formal investigations into Russian political interference, the UK has never commissioned a comparable inquiry, creating “a serious accountability gap” ahead of the next general election. CEO Mark Kieran said successive governments had “made a political choice not to” investigate; the report calls for a full statutory public inquiry, declassification of the Intelligence and Security Committee’s 2020 Russia Report, a formal intelligence-sharing framework between the security services and the Electoral Commission, and full implementation of the Rycroft Review.

Liberty publishes updated explainer on the ECHR and what UK withdrawal would mean

Liberty’s refreshed resource sets out the history of the European Convention on Human Rights, its enforcement through the Human Rights Act, and the implications of the Chisinau Declaration agreed by all 46 Council of Europe states in May, which Liberty argues will make it easier for governments to deport people despite serious safety or family-life concerns and risks “a slow erosion” of rights. The explainer notes that the ECHR does not prevent deportation in the overwhelming majority of cases, with the European Court of Human Rights finding against the UK in just 13 deportation cases in the past 45 years, and that withdrawal would breach the Good Friday Agreement. Read the explainer here.

Calls to Action

Consultations to respond to, open letters to sign, convening to follow and collaborators wanted

Working on the Representation of the People Bill? Join the Elections Bill Hub

Kyle Taylor of Fair Vote UK and a range of organisations are working together to coordinate around the bill. Activity is proceeding at pace, so if you’re working on the bill, contact Kyle to get involved.

Working in Wales? Join Democracy Group Cymru

Democracy Group Cymru is an information sharing network among organisations working in Wales, convened by Democracy Classroom and the Electoral Reform Society Cymru. So if you’re working on democracy in Wales, don’t miss out on opportunities to share your work, connect with others and collaborate — Join now.

UK Government opens call for evidence on 7th Open Government National Action Plan

The government is seeking ideas from civil society and the public for its next National Action Plan for Open Government, covering transparency, accountability, open data, digital governance and public participation, with no limit on the number of submissions. Find out more information about you can submit your ideas.

Newspeak House open applications to their year-long fellowship programme

Newspeak House runs a political technology and social change residential fellowship out of their London campus and community space. Aimed at supporting mid-career technologists, the one-year programme, Introduction to Political Technology, has been running since 2015 — through which participants spend a year immersed in communities of practice — ranging from government, activism, journalism, charities and beyond — enjoying the opportunity to meet thousands of people and participate in a wide range of in-person events at Newspeak House and elsewhere — find out more and apply.

Democracy Sector 🗳️

The latest moves, hires, partnerships and organisational news from across the democracy sector.

Senedd Explained reflects on its coverage of the 2026 Welsh election and looks ahead

Senedd Explained, whose mission is to make Welsh news accessible both inside and outside Wales, covered the May Senedd Election through vox pops, breaking news and collaborations with Elect Her, the Electoral Commission, Naked Politics, Green New Deal Rising and Girls Who Talk Politics. The team plans to continue covering the new Welsh Government and an expanded Senedd; contact seneddexplained@gmail.com for more info.

Malcolm Clarke launches Democracy Insight to make UK politics and local democracy more accessible

Former MP staffer and Durham County Councillor Malcolm Clarke has launched Democracy Insight to provide non-partisan coverage of local government, elections, councillors, MPs and the democratic process, with the aim of helping people better understand the decisions that affect their daily lives. The platform offers articles, explainers, and a YouTube channel focused on making local democracy more transparent and encouraging civic participation; recent content includes analysis of the 2026 local elections, the Labour leadership question, and the Makerfield by-election — Congrats on the launch Malcolm!

Democracy Club reports high user satisfaction across voter information services in May elections

Democracy Club’s latest blog rounds up feedback from users of WhereDoIVote.co.uk and WhoCanIVoteFor.co.uk during the local and devolved elections, recording satisfaction of 88% and 77% respectively, with almost half of WDIV users and a third of WCIVF users saying they were more likely to vote because of the services. Read the blog here.

Power & Structure

Where power sits and who gets a seat at the table

EHRC Code of Practice on single-sex spaces laid before Parliament prompts concern from LGBTQ+ organisations

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s 340-page Code of Practice on Services, Public Functions, and Associations, following the April 2025 Supreme Court ruling on the definition of sex under the Equality Act, was laid before Parliament on 21 May. In response, Stonewall said “trans+ inclusion is fundamental to our vision of a world where everyone everywhere has equal rights” and noted the UK had “plummeted in LGBTQ+ equality rankings in Europe over the last decade”. Novara Media writer Juliet Jacques argued the guidance represents a form of democratic backsliding, highlighting the Good Law Project’s funding appeal for a legal challenge.

Democracy for Sale reveals PM’s inner circle briefed on Labour Together’s APCO investigation

New documents reported by Peter Geoghegan and Khadija Sharife show that Morgan McSweeney and Paul Ovenden, who later became Keir Starmer’s chief of staff and head of communications respectively, were briefed in January 2024 about US PR firm APCO’s work for then-Labour Together, which had been paid over £30,000 to investigate the sourcing of a 2023 Sunday Times story on the think tank’s undeclared funding. Calls for a parliamentary inquiry are growing, with Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle telling Labour MP John McDonnell the matter needed “to be investigated thoroughly,” and the Serious Fraud Office understood to have received a disclosure concerning APCO’s destruction of related documents. Read the full report here.

Liberty director Akiko Hart argues government must defend free speech consistently to avoid deepening division

Writing in openDemocracy, Akiko Hart, Director of Liberty argues that selective defence of speech weakens the principle itself, that the UK has “an imperfect but relatively coherent legislative framework” that needs consistent application rather than wholesale rewriting, and calls for an overhaul of protest laws, repeal of SLAPPs, and adaptation of free speech laws to the digital age. Read the article here.

Netpol publishes new analysis of Met Police protest restrictions and growing accountability gap

Two new blogs from the Network for Police Monitoring (Netpol) examine Section 12 and 14 FOI data showing the Met Police was responsible for 100% of all Section 12 restrictions on processions and two thirds of Section 14 restrictions on assemblies in England and Wales in 2024–2025, with 57.7% of the uses of conditions powers directed at Palestine-related protests and 11.5% at far-right protests, while the force supplied dates for only 16 of the 114 marches and rallies it told the Home Office it had imposed conditions on. A companion piece argues that protesters are being forced into greater visibility at the moment police decision-making is becoming harder to scrutinise, with expanding powers under the Crime and Policing Act 2026 not matched by meaningful accountability mechanisms.

Spotlight on Corruption calls for political finance reform as Reform UK donations top £9 million this year

In a briefing published on 3 June, the day before Electoral Commission data showed Reform UK had received £9.3 million in private donations in Q1 2026 (outpacing both Labour and the Conservatives), Spotlight on Corruption argued for a programme of political reform addressing “patronage in appointments, the role of big money in politics, opaque lobbying, and the lack of statutory safeguards against future democratic backsliding.” Around £7 million of Reform’s quarterly haul came from two overseas-based donors, crypto investors Christopher Harborne (£3m) and Ben Delo (£4m), with both donations made before a government cap on overseas political donations took retroactive effect on 25 March.

Manchester cafe owner alleges police tried to recruit him as informant on Palestine Action

Shams Sadiq, who runs two cafes in Manchester, told the Guardian that Greater Manchester Police officers offered financial incentives and amnesty over low-level offences in exchange for informing on the proscribed group Palestine Action, four days after he was held for over three hours at Manchester Airport under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act. His solicitor Simon Pook is making formal representations to GMP, which has not commented. Read the Guardian report.

Anthropic calls for coordinated industry pause mechanism as UK campaigns push for democratic control of AI

Anthropic announced last week that frontier AI developers should agree a coordinated and verifiable way to slow or ‘temporarily pause’ development if systems begin improving themselves faster than society can manage the risks, noting that as of now more than 80% of code merged into its own codebase was authored by its model Claude. The intervention sits alongside growing UK-based campaigning by PauseAI UK and Pull the Plug, which led February’s March Against the Machines in London and argue that AI development should be subject to democratic public control rather than left to corporate decision-making, with Pull the Plug calling for a government-funded Citizens’ Assembly on AI. Read the Reuters report here.

Capacity & Engagement

Building the muscles of a healthy democratic culture

APPG on Political and Media Literacy concludes two-week Digital Briefing Series

The Academic Advisory Group of the APPG on Political and Media Literacy, hosted by Shout Out UK and chaired by Dr James Weinberg, ran its Digital Panel Series over the past fortnight, delivering 30-minute parliamentary briefings from academics on political and media literacy. Sessions covered citizenship education and the “civic gap” Votes at 16, AI-enabled gender violence and deepfakes, mental health influencer content and much more. All sessions were recorded as part of an ongoing public resource; contact Evie at Shout Out UK for access to the recordings.

Demos completes ‘Your Voice on Immigration’ deliberative process for Home Affairs Select Committee, with report due in September

Demos’ Director of Participatory Programmes Miriam Levin reports that a new deliberative process, delivered with King’s College London and the Parliamentary Engagement Team and filmed by Channel 4, brought 35 participants in each of North Tyneside, Leicester and Renfrewshire together to develop principles to guide the Committee’s scrutiny of government policy on workforce migration, with six members of the Committee attending in person. Miriam noted the process was well held and was a great example of disagreeing agreeably in action. The full report and Channel 4 programming are due in September.

Humanity Project, Octopus Communities and Ambitious Academy host “upside down” youth assembly in Islington

Writing on their Substack, Clare Farrell of Humanity Project reflects on a recent youth assembly at The Hub (Arsenal Stadium) where young people themselves facilitated conversations with councillors, youth services, local businesses and police, with the process built around a youth-made film about safety and belonging on their estate. The film launches on Friday 19 June, 6–9pm at Collective Acting Studio, Hornsey Road Baths; RSVP info@octopuscommunities.org.uk. Check out the post here.

And now for something completely different …

A glance beyond the UK sector

Solidarity Is publishes seven “Solidarity Stances” for organisations navigating authoritarian conditions

A new resource from the Building Movement Project’s Solidarity Is programme offers seven strategic stances that organisations and networks can adopt in times of heightened chaos and crisis, addressing dilemmas including when to speak out publicly, how to preserve organisational and community safety, and what conditions support bolder action rooted in transformative solidarity practice. Programme leads Deepa Iyer and Adaku Utah discuss the framework in a recent episode of the Solidarity Is This podcast. Download the resource here.

Democracy27 launches in Brussels with European task force on democratic confidence

Democracy27, launched on 2 June, brings together a 15-person task force across ten European countries, chaired by Věra Jourová (former Vice-President of the European Commission) and vice-chaired by Leo Varadkar and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem. Over the coming months it will run citizen consultations, country visits and civil society dialogues exploring why people remain attached to democracy yet lose trust in its institutions. Follow the new project at democracy27.eu.

See you next time,

James and the Democracy Network team