A spokesman for George Galloway MP’s Viva Palestina charity has appealed to the Charity Tribunal against an order to provide accounts.

The Charity Commission issued a direction on 2 September requiring Ronald McKay to prepare accounts for the charity for financial years ending 2010, 2011 and 2012 and give them to the Commission. McKay, who has claimed he was never a trustee for the charity, made a late appeal against this order and has been granted an application to appeal out of time.

Viva Palestina is currently the subject of a Charity Commission statutory inquiry as the charity, set up by Galloway in 2009 to support people in Palestine, has never filed accounts to the Commission.

Previously the charity’s director, Kevin Ovendon, had told civilsociety.co.uk that submission of the accounts was delayed because the Charity Commission was investigating and had possession of all the charity's books and records.

McKay attended a Charity Tribunal hearing last week and told Judge Alison McKenna that the cause of his appeal being lodged outside of the 42-day time limit was down to confusion over the correct date.

The Tribunal’s ruling states: “[McKay] said it did not make sense for his time for appeal to the Tribunal to be ticking down while the review was ongoing. He said he still does not know the outcome of the review. Finally he submitted that there would be a breach of natural justice if his appeal did not proceed.”

McKay went on to apologise for his error.

Judge McKenna stated that she believed it would be fair and just to allow the appeal to go ahead.

Asked why the regulator had asked McKay for the accounts when he claims he was not a trustee of the charity, a Charity Commission spokeswoman said it could not comment on ongoing litigation in the Tribunal.

In July, the Charity Commission told civilsociety.co.uk that it had opened a statutory inquiry into Viva Palestina, and one of the regulatory issues to be examined by the inquiry was its overdue accounts.

A previous inquiry into the charity found that it was misleading to the public and criticised several aspects of the way it had been run.

Reports elsewhere claiming that the Charity Commission has removed Viva Palestina from its register are untrue - the Commission admitted that this was the result of an internal error.

Ronald McKay did not respond to an invitation to comment.