Charities Bill [HL]

My Lords, my noble friend has clearly and explicitly explained the Government’s position. I am sure that he will tell me if I am wrong, but as I understood him, if one has objects that fall within Clause 2 in the necessary list and can therefore advance to the public benefit test, the fact that one is campaigning on issues that relate to that object does not prevent one from being a charity. If that is so, why does he not accept the amendment? It says that a purpose in subsection (2), which is what first has to be met,"““is not excluded from that subsection by virtue of campaigning for changes in the law””." I thought that that was more or less what I had said in the first proposition. The noble Lord, Lord Phillips, raised political campaigning: as soon as we put that in there are problems. If a charity is founded for the object of whatever the noble Lord means by political campaigning, it will not meet—