Union Standing Committee disagreed with Joyce invite nine to one

By Hugh Ludford

All nine other members of the Durham Union’s Standing Committee voted that they did not agree with the now-President’s invitation of Helen Joyce, in a non-binding vote taken in January.

The Union’s Standing Committee is “the Society’s executive” according to their constitution. It has ten members, including the President, the President-elect, Treasurer, Secretary and Equalities Officer.

Of these members, only the current President (then President-elect) voted in favour of the already-agreed invitation of controversial gender critical activist and journalist Helen Joyce, who is set for a Union event on the 15th of June.

A Union source told Palatinate that it was “not a consensus” which saw Joyce invited but rather a “personal mission” by the President.

Palatinate understands that invitations are at the President’s discretion and are sent to the Union’s Trustees in a list. The Standing Committee vote was not binding and would not change the invitation, since Joyce had been invited around a month earlier.

This vote took place in a “closed session” of Standing Committee, meaning minutes were not shared to the Union’s General Committee. Additionally, minutes were not given to Standing Committee members but would have been available on request, Palatinate understands.

This is despite a non-binding commitment in the Union’s EDI plan from June 2025 that “Minutes of General Committee and Standing Committee meetings are now published online to promote greater transparency and accountability in the Union’s decision-making process”.

At the time of writing, minutes for the Standing and General Committees have not been published since March 2025, before the EDI plan quoted above was published

The Union member also said that they believe Joyce’s invitation is
“deliberately provocative”

The Union source above suggested the decision to make the meeting a closed session may be because “no one wants their name attached to this shit”.
This Union member also said that they believe Joyce’s invitation is “deliberately provocative”, citing events at Oxford and Cambridge (not connected with their Unions) where her visits have seen student protests.

The Durham Union’s Standing Committee has told Palatinate “Speaker invitations are issued at the President’s discretion. The January vote took place after Helen Joyce had already accepted the invitation, and concerned whether members agreed with the President-Elect’s decision. It was not a vote on whether the event should go ahead.

“It is inaccurate to suggest that individual speaker invitations are approved or rejected by the Trustees, or that the Trustees had seen and approved the speaker list by the time of the January meeting.

“Whilst individual members will naturally hold different views on speakers hosted by the Society, the Society does not endorse the views of any speaker it hosts. The Standing Committee has full confidence in the Society’s procedures and the President’s prerogative to invite speakers.

“The Society recognises that the publication of committee minutes should be kept up to date. In pursuit of our transparency commitments, the Society will publish Standing Committee and General Committee minutes from December 2025 to June 2026, subject to the usual requirements around confidential or closed-session business.”

Image: Anoushka Mundey / Palatinate