Rail union leadership candidate at centre of campaign photo 'doctoring' mystery

29 August 2023 , 08:48

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A photo of TSSA chief candidate Bonnie Craven appears to have been doctored

A rail union leadership candidate is at the centre of a photo doctoring mystery over her election campaign, the Mirror can reveal.

Bonnie Craven is one of three nominees running for election to General Secretary of TSSA (Transport Salaried Staffs' Association) - with the ballot having opened on August 25. Former chief Manuel Cortes was removed earlier this year after the damning Baroness Kennedy report on sexual harassment and misconduct within the union.

Ms Craven unsuccessfully ran for parliament in Sutton & Cheam as a Labour Party member in 2019. According to her LinkedIn page, she previously worked as an aide to former party leader Jeremy Corbyn. She is currently listed as working as an industrial organiser and equalities lead for TSSA. She announced her intention to run in the election - which ends on September 2022 - in June.

Ms Craven tweeted on July 27: "If I am successful in the contest to be General Secretary of TSSA I will transform our Union into a bottom up grassroots democratic trade union. The branches will be in charge of our union through you, our members. The days of a General Secretary ruling by diktat are now over."

In the responses, one Twitter user posted a photo of her canvassing for Labour - thought to be in 2018 - alongside a photo released as part of her current TSSA campaign. While not exactly the same shot, they appear to be from the same shoot, with Ms Craven seen speaking to a blonde woman while holding a leaflet. In the Labour version she is also wearing a red rosette. But this has disappeared in the TSSA one, while the leaflet has changed to just bear the union name.

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The person who posted the suspicious snaps wrote "misrepresentation" and "Not when you doctor a 2018 photo #tellthetruth". The same photo which shows Ms Craven holding a TSSA leaflet also features in a tweet from her own account promoting her election campaign.

When contacted by the Mirror, Ms Craven said the post drawing attention to the differing photos was an attempt to "derail my campaign to become the next TSSA General Secretary and I advise you to drop them". She added: "My commitment is to being the General Secretary of TSSA."

She is also alleged to have posted on Twitter on August 19 - embedded in a tweet about culture change at the union - before later deleting it: "There is still unacceptable bullying of staff, who are still frightened for their jobs." She did not expand on these claims when approached by the Mirror.

A spokesperson for TSSA said: “It would not be appropriate for TSSA to comment on matters relating to the current General Secretary election.” Ms Craven is running against Duncan Bates and Maryam Eslamdoust.

Ryan Merrifield