The recent Charity Commission investigation into the Family and Childcare Trust is an example of how complaints can be used as a tool to muzzle charities. Campaigners must make sure it doesn't work says David Ainsworth.

This week the Charity Commission reported on an investigation into the Family and Childcare Trust. It's a case which has worrying implications for the ability of the sector to speak freely.

The Trust had faced accusations from Rob Wilson, Tory MP for Reading East, that it had sent party political tweets which favoured the Labour Party.

The charity was completely exonerated by the Commission, but it’s a cautionary tale, nonetheless, because the Trust may be more inclined to keep quiet next time round.

The charity says it will keep talking and I hope it does, but it’s been subjected to an investigation which has probably wasted a lot of its time and irritated its trustees. Even though it was behaving itself already, it has introduced a risk committee to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

In short, Wilson has caused a lot of hassle and expense for the people who’ve pissed him off, while making almost no effort and incurring no inconvenience himself. If he has lost, and the charity won, it appears a decidedly Pyrrhic victory.

Nor is he the first politician to use the regulator as a stick to beat a charity with. During the referendum on whether to adopt the alternative vote, we saw some pretty similar stuff, in which the No campaign complained about more or less every charity who ventured an opinion, irrespective of why they did so. The ensuring brouhaha pretty much silenced charitable lobbying on the issue.

As the stricter rules around the Lobbying Act filter through, it’s only going to get worse.

Don’t like what a charity says? Report them to the authorities and scare the bejeezus out of a bunch of unpaid, part-time trustees. It doesn’t matter whether your complaint is vexatious and without merit. The trustees will be so put off by having to answer questions about their integrity, they will come down hard on the staff responsible and ensure they never venture an opinion again. As an added bonus, the media coverage will make other charities wary of following suit.

I think it’s the potential for this behaviour, and for charities to keep silent because they fear it, that Acevo and NCVO have repeatedly described a “chilling effect on charity campaigning” during their lobbying against those who are seeking to muzzle the sector.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. You do not have to let other people bully you into keeping silent. You do not have to be muzzled.

You have a duty to your beneficiaries to speak on their behalf. And if other people want you to be quiet, you probably have something worth saying.

So learn the law. Check your facts carefully. Consult with the authorities if necessary. Develop a strategy to handle complaints.

And then, when you’re sure of your ground, talk your head off.