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Why can't political parties be charities, MPs ask 7

Finance | Tania Mason | 1 Apr 2008

Labour MPs on the Public Administration Select Committee have asked, for the second time in eight months, whether political parties should be allowed to have charitable status.

In an evidence session last week on political campaigning by charities, the committee chair, Labour MP Tony Wright (pictured), posed the question to witnesses: “Why not make political parties charities as well?”

He was picking up on a point made earlier in the hearing by witness Ian Leggett, director of People & Planet, that the law on political campaigning by charities should be redrafted to promote more active citizenship and public participation in creating policy.

“If you are saying that participation is a good thing, and provides a kind of public benefit, someone might say in that case why not enable politcal parties to be charities?” asked Wright. “Political parties are great vehicles for public participation, so why have we got this hang-up about them, why not make them charities as well?”

It is the second time that a Labour member of the committee has floated this question to voluntary sector witnesses at their hearings.

Last July, in a hearing about public benefit with Charity Commission representatives as witnesses, Labour MP Kelvin Hopkins asked: “Should not political parties be able to have the advantage of charitable status?”

Political purposes 'not lawful'

At the time, the idea did not find favour with Commission chair Dame Suzi Leather. She said: “No…you cannot have political purposes and be a charity. You can carry out campaigning activity…but it is not lawful, in our view, for charities to be set up to have political purposes.”

Hopkins pressed on: “Given that political parties are based upon value systems, beliefs, they are not so different from some religions, and would it not be possible for government to decide that political parties would have charitable status in future, to help them be funded equally?”

Dame Suzi Leather replied that it was parliament, and not the government’s place to decide that. Kenneth Dibble, the Commission’s executive director of legal and compliance, added that there was no reference in the 12 new charitable purposes – which were approved by parliament – to political organisations being charitable.

In last week’s session, Ian Leggett responded to Wright’s suggestion by saying there was a “clear distinction in most people’s minds between charities and political parties”, which should be maintained.

However, he added it would be healthier for society to create a bigger bridge between civil and political society so that people involved in voluntary activity would also want to get involved in politics.

Brian Lamb, director of communications for RNID, who also gave evidence to the committee, said it was “important for charities, for trust issues, to not be seen as a political party because that’s where problems would start”.

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