A race equality charity has deleted its social media posts relating to the verdict in the trial of police sergeant Martyn Blake – a firearms officer who was charged with murdering Chris Kaba – after Conservative leadership contender Robert Jenrick accused it of “peddling divisive statements” and urged the regulator to remove its charitable status.

Jenrick accused the Runnymede Trust of being overtly political, peddling divisive statements and refusing to accept the jury’s verdict of not guilty, in response to a now-deleted post by the charity on X. 

The charity’s post, which was published in response to Blake being cleared of the murder of Kaba, who was shot during a police stop, said: “The legal system doesn’t deliver real justice for families bereaved by racist state violence.

“Since 1990, there have been 1,904 deaths in or following police custody or contact. In that time, only one officer has been found guilty for manslaughter, and none for murder.”

Third Sector understands that the Charity Commission began assessing concerns about the charity’s social media posts on 22 October, but Jenrick wrote to the regulator on 23 October.

A spokesperson for the commission said: “We are already assessing concerns about The Runnymede Trust’s recent social media posts.”

Posting on X, Jenrick said: “The Runnymede Trust should have their charitable status removed. 

“They are clearly a political organisation, peddling divisive statements, misleading claims and refusing to accept the outcome of a full jury trial.”

He described the organisation as “dangerous” and accused it of “pouring poison into our communities”. 

In a separate post, Jenrick said he had formally written to the regulator requesting an investigation and to remove the Runnymede Trust’s charitable status.

In a statement, the Runnymede Trust said: “We have deleted our posts in relation to the acquittal of Sgt. Martyn Blake for the murder of Chris Kaba. 

“We accept that the wording and statistics used in our original posts on X were not as carefully expressed as they should have been, and regret the furore that this caused.”

The charity said: “Our posts were making a more nuanced and complex point which could not be clearly expressed with the limitations of the X format, and so we should have refrained from making it. 

“We accept that there was a prosecution and a trial where a jury reached a verdict and that these followed the traditional conventions of legal accountability.”

The charity added that it existed to challenge racial inequalities and injustices and to “advance the case for a society that is free from the structural, institutional and interpersonal forms of racism that underpin these”.

It said that in the past few years there have been “increased attacks on civil society actors by politicians”, saying: “This has been even more pronounced for those working on racial justice and the Runnymede Trust has in recent years been actively targeted through hyper-critical political scrutiny and denigration of our work. 

“This kind of hostile civil society culture is deeply unhelpful and undermines our democracy.”