Government departments should place clauses in all charity contracts preventing organisations from using public money to campaign, the Conservative Party Conference heard yesterday.
The recommendation came at a fringe event organised by right wing think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, which examined whether the state should be funding pressure groups.
Christopher Snowdon, director of lifestyle economics at the IEA and the author of a number of reports accusing government of using charities as "sock puppets" to lobby itself, told the event that organisations receiving state funding cannot be independent of government and should be prevented from using that money to lobby.
But Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, told the event that Snowdon's claims were "simply false".
Charities 'campaign for unpopular clauses'
Snowdon told the event that some charities are using government money to “campaign for unpopular causes” and should be prevented from doing so.
He recommended extending a clause that the Department for Communities and Local Government introduced last year whhich stipulates that money from government cannot be used to lobby government.
“Charities very often - when they are politically active and state-funded - campaign for unpopular causes,” he said. He said “a small number are much more politically active than we assume” and that this “subverts the democratic process”.
“A lot of organisations do not share the values of the government but are still being funded as a hangover from the Blair and Brown era,” he said.
Paul Staines, editor of the Guido Fawkes blog, also said there should be legislation to prevent charities overstepping the mark.
“They have been pushing their luck for so long,” he said. “Over time these organisations tend to move to the left.”
Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP, argued that some charities gave a “misleading impression” about their work and hide the fact that they campaign from donors.
He claimed that they are “taking money from people who think that they are funding a project somewhere” and using it to lobby government.
Hannan also called for greater transparency from charities. He said: “It’s not just that information should be available somewhere on a website.”
'This is simply false'
Sir Stuart Etherington, chief executive of NCVO, who was also on the panel,said that Snowdon's claims were wrong.
"The suggestion that there are large numbers of charities using government money to influence government is simply false," he said. "At best, such a clause as the one proposed is unnecessary red tape."
He argued that charities have a "fundamental right to campaign" and that doing so could save the government money.
He said charities which delivered services often found themselves in contact with vulnerable people, and that those charities must then be able to speak out.
"They have both a right and a duty to learn from their experience of their beneficiaries and to press government into action," he said.
“Charities in particular have a long-established role in educating and informing the public, and crucially, holding the state to account. And it’s the sign of a mature democracy that we allow that dissent and make sure we have that improved public debate,” he said.
