Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, has called on the voluntary sector to reject NCVO’s recommendation that charity chief executives should ask trustees and senior staff to declare their political affiliations.

“We must avoid the transparency trap – that we have to reveal all, and certainly more than any other sector of society," Bubb said in a blog post published today. "We must reject the idea in the current NCVO consultation that, as CEOs, we ask our senior staff or our trustees to formally declare their political affiliation."

Bubb said in the post that he had told members not to support the proposal in his speech to his organisation's AGM.

“No sector does this; not councils, not civil servants and, as my chair pointed out, not even Serco," he said. "This is where transparency comes face to face with civil liberties and the employment rights of our staff.”

Bubb said that Acevo member chief executives had “rightly rejected this idea in their responses.”

Bubb also defended what he called the charity sector's: “right to be professional” and to pay chief executives “properly and not be ashamed, provided that trustees, donors, beneficiaries and staff agree pay is good value for money.”

Bubb said charities should resist being drawn into debate with those who criticised the sector.

"I keep in mind George Bernard Shaw’s advice. 'I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it,'" he said.

Elizabeth Chamberlain, NCVO’s policy manager said her organisation's proposals were merely suggestions based on consultations with members about “things that had come up in the past.”

Chamberlain also pointed out that the NCVO is “not a regulator” and had no power beyond the making of its recommendations.

Chamberlain said that the proposal wouldn’t call on senior charity staff and trustees to declare who they would necessarily be voting for at the next election; more whether or not they were registered members of a political party.

“This and the other recommendations in the document are open to suggestions,” she said.