The Union’s Senior Officer has resigned after it emerged that Jude Law would not be coming to Cambridge.

Mr Law had been advertised as a speaker since the start of term, and played a prominent role in the Cambridge Union Society’s termcard and publicity material. Senior Officer Sébastien Ginet, who was responsible for booking speakers, has resigned due to his part in the mistake, but as a parting shot, accused the Union of xenophobia.

After a piece appeared in last week’s Varsity (Issue 682, November 7) about the Oxford Union falsely advertising Mr Law as a speaker, the actor’s PR company contacted the newspaper to deny that he would be appearing at Cambridge.

A spokesperson from Premier PR said, “Jude has never been scheduled to speak this term and nor is he able to as he is shooting a film”. Soon after Varsity contacted the Union with this information, the Society confirmed that Mr Law would not be speaking this term; nor will Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko or Sergei Stanishev, Prime Minister of Bulgaria. All three men had been prominently displayed in the Union’s advertising.

A Union spokesman said, “We apologise unreservedly for the fact that Viktor Yushchenko, Sergei Stanishev, and Jude Law will not be addressing the society this term. Senior Officer Sébastien Ginet, the officer responsible for organising  these speakers’ appearances, tendered his resignation on Wednesday”.

Adding to the Union’s misfortune, Josh Roche, President of its Oxford counterpart, has criticised the “inflammatory” comments made by Cambridge officers about their similar misfortune. Cambridge declined to respond to this.

The Cambridge Union criticised Oxford for advertising Law, Yushchenko and Giscard d’Estaing in its termcard when they had not been booked to speak, with Bott calling Roche “dishonest” for suggesting that Cambridge had promised to help secure those speakers.

A spokesman for the Cambridge Union said that they “will be conducting a review of the ways that we book and advertise speakers” to avoid a similar situation in the future. A by-election will be held for a new Senior Officer on Sunday.

Boris Johnson also cancelled his advertised appearance earlier this term. However, that cancellation is not thought to be linked to the current incident, with the Union putting it down to the London Mayor’s “work commitments”.

The Union did not confirm whether or not the cancelled speakers would be visiting Cambridge in the future, saying only, “we are making continued efforts”. The Society also declined to say whether it knew of Mr Law’s unavailability before being contacted by Varsity, although a spokesman said that they were “aware that there were difficulties”.

Following Ginet’s resignation, former French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing will not be appearing at the Union. He had been approached through Ginet’s personal contacts, and Ginet now feels it would be “inappropriate” for Mr Giscard d’Estaing to come to Cambridge. However, the other guests booked by Ginet will still speak at the Society. Everyone scheduled to speak in a Union debate this term has honoured their commitment.

Ginet says that he was effectively “forced to resign”, being told by the President that if he did not, he would face and lose, a vote of confidence. A member of the Standing Committee denied this, saying, “‘None of us know what Seb’s playing at. He resigned, and everyone on Standing Committee thought that this was the right thing to do. Who agrees to resign and then says they didn’t the next day?”

The former Senior Officer told Varsity, “I take full responsibility for the mistakes I may have made,” and admitted, “in the process of learning that those speakers were not confirmed anymore I decided to stay quiet” in an effort to attract the speakers this term rather than postponing or cancelling their appearances.

When pressed on whether or not he deserved to lose his post, Ginet asserted: “If this was the criterion [for resignation] then lots of members of Standing Committee would already have resigned.”

Ginet claims that his resignation was engineered by rivals in the Society. “I profoundly think,” he said, “that there was a vendetta against me becoming President, because I am French...I am surprised that the British elite is not open to Europeans.”

 “The Union has received no evidence whatsoever to support Mr Ginet’s claims”, responded the Union. “We take allegations of racism very seriously indeed – if we were to receive any evidence we would obviously investigate.”

Ginet had high praise for some within the Union. He told Varsity that President Adam Bott “has done tremendously great things for the Society,” and added, “I wish him all of luck for the rest of his term”.

Cambridge students have reacted with equanimity to the turmoil. Justin Woolf, a Homerton fresher who recently joined the Union, initially said that he was “shocked” at the false advertising, but concluded that “this wouldn’t have made any difference to me joining, because I know they’ll have quality speakers in the future”.

Hugo Gye