Charities minister Brooks Newmark has said he "absolutely" supports charities' right to campaign, after his comments that the sector should stay out of politics provoked a storm of criticism on Twitter and Civil Society News.
Newmark, the minister for civil society and Conservative MP for Braintree, said charities have an important role to play in helping to shape government policy.
“Charities absolutely have the right to campaign but they should stay out of the realm of party politics,” he said in a statement released by the Cabinet Office, which he also tweeted.
Newmark was clarifying comments he made yesterday at a conference on social action, following his first speech as minister. In response to a question about charities campaigning, he said charities should “stick to their knitting” and keep out of the realm of politics, provoking a barrage of angry tweets and comments from the sector.
Bubb: the twittersphere can calm down
Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, met with the minister yesterday afternoon, following his appearance at the event, People helping people: the future of public services, held by Nesta and Cabinet Office’s Centre for Social Action.
The leader of the charity chief executives body said in a blog post today that they had a “robust exchange of views” that left Bubb satisfied that Newmark is not challenging charities' right to campaign.
“He specifically told me he supports the right of charities to lobby and campaign. He was making the point that this cannot stray into party politics. And of course he is right,” Bubb writes.
“The Charity Commission explicitly protects the right of charities to be political but not to be partisan. There is of course confusion in some parts about what exactly the boundary is between being ‘political’ and being ‘partisan’ – the former being intrinsic to charities’ role in alleviating and preventing injustice and suffering, the latter being the role of political parties. But to be fair to our new minister, though he might have been more careful in what he said in the context of all the rows on the Lobbying Act, he did take pains to clarify what he meant in a subsequent tweet.”
Bubb said his meeting with Newmark was “very positive” and they discussed the importance of continuing to press for public service reform.
“My judgement is we have an ally in our new minister,” he added. "The twittersphere can calm down!"
Sector responds to Newmark's comments
However, others felt Newmark’s Twitter clarification raised further questions. Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, tweeted: “Are you suggesting charities should not criticise government policies even if they create the need for charitable service?”
Adrian Salmon, Footsteps Fund manager at the University of Leeds, tweeted: “So if their service users are suffering as a result of policies also criticised by the opposition, they must be quiet?”
Lisa Nandy, shadow minister for civil society and Labour MP for Wigan, said: “Telling charities to stick to their knitting is patronising and deeply offensive, especially at a time when they are picking up the pieces from this government's unfair policies.
“The new minister has completely misunderstood what charities do. Charities play a vital role in our democracy, challenging government, informing policy and holding politicians account. If the government is causing harm to their beneficiaries, charities don't just have a right, but a duty to say so.”
Newmark retweets Guido Fawkes blog welcoming his initial comment
Meanwhile, three hours after Newmark posted his clarification tweet, he shared a link on his Twitter feed to a post by the right-wing political blogger, Guido Fawkes, which welcomed his “stinging attack on partisan charity sock-puppets”.
The blogger wrote: “Predictably a minister daring to suggest anyone in the third sector might possibly do anything wrong has gone down like a cup of cold sick among charities themselves… Good to see the new charities minister is on board with the campaign to get charities out of politics.”
