The charity sector is "enormously important to the Prime Minister" personally, the new minister for civil society Rob Wilson told an audience of charity leaders at the Conservative Party Conference yesterday.

Wilson, the MP for Reading East, was appointed as minister for civil society on Saturday after Brooks Newmark, his predecessor, stepped down over a sex scandal.

Wilson replaced Newmark yesterday at an event on social investment organised by charity leaders body Acevo and social lenders Big Society Capital and the Social Investment Business.

"This is an enormously important sector to the prime minister," he said. "He made it clear to me how important it was.

"I will do my best to make sure this continues to be a thriving sector and I will do my best to make sure it is well supported."

However, Wilson has already ruffled the feathers of one charity, the Family and Childcare Trust, who was the subject of a complaint by the MP to the Charity Commission earlier this year for its use of a campaign hashtag.

Because the #childcarecrisis hashtag was also one deployed by the Labour Party in its campaigning, Wilson accused the charity of carrying out “party political“ activity. Wilson also complained that the charity's chief executive, Anand Shukla, was closely associated with the Labour party.

The Charity Commission exonerated the charity.

The Trust declined to comment yesterday on Rob Wilson’s appointment as minister.