What a kind invitation. Were the Conservative majority in Harborough slightly more marginal, I would be happy to visit on many occasions, but will have to pass this time and focus on matters closer to home and my majority.
Going back to the Charitable Uses Act of 1601, there is a long established principle that donations, bequests and legacies given to charities really ought to be used for the purpose that their donors intended. What my hon. Friend the Member for Redcar has set out in new clause 2 would give people the confidence that they could donate to charities or leave bequests to them knowing full well that independent charities would not be compelled
“to use or dispose of their assets in a way which is inconsistent with their charitable purposes.”
I therefore strongly endorse new clause 2, and I glad she has tabled it for discussion this afternoon.
The final area I want to focus on is campaigning. As someone who has been a charity campaigner—both professionally and through my voluntary contributions to the work of charities—this is an issue I feel strongly about. As I said in my earlier intervention, I am still at a loss to understand the problem that the gagging law was trying to solve, because Charity Commission guidance has always been clear that charities cannot campaign for party political purposes and certainly cannot use charitable funds for the purposes of party political campaigning. It would therefore be completely unlawful for a charity to say around a general election, “We completely disagree with the Conservative party’s policy on x, and would therefore encourage you to vote for one of the other parties,” or, “The Labour party policy on y is inconsistent with the views of the charity, and therefore you should vote for another political party.”
What has always been perfectly in order and, I would argue, desirable is for charities to be an effective voice for civil society and to ensure when policy is up for debate, whether during our deliberations in this House, in one of the devolved Parliaments or Assembly, or in local authorities up and down the country, that they can draw on their wisdom and experience, and the evidence base they gather—through desk research, commissioned research or, more often than not, their direct experience of working with their beneficiaries—to make sure that decision makers are well informed.
That is a real benefit to our democracy, and I am afraid that the cries from those on the Government Benches—that this change has not had a chilling effect—are simply untrue and unfounded. Whereas the Conservative party is usually found in this Chamber arguing against red tape, the gagging law has had completely the opposite effect. Indeed, I am aware of campaigners and finance officers in charities having to sit there with their spreadsheets prior to the last general election and try to calculate whether something would be a constituency spend or a national spend, whether a collaboration with other charity partners would be workable within the law or
where spending would be apportioned. I am afraid that the gagging law has imposed real and unnecessary burdens on charities. If people are concerned about how charities are spending their money, they should certainly be more concerned about the amount of time and money they might spend complying with unnecessary Government regulation than they should ever be concerned about whether they are sending briefings to Members of Parliament or asking parliamentary candidates to sign up to specific pledges or causes.
It really sticks in the throat that lots of Members of Parliament are very happy to turn up to photo ops at their party conferences or out in their constituencies with the Guide Dogs or children at a local youth club, or to go along and see all the great work an animal rights charity does—they are happy to issue press releases and enjoy the photographs—but when those charities come back to talk about the impact of their voting record or public policy they have supported or might consider supporting, suddenly this is considered a huge inconvenience or, even worse, people want to argue that it is illegal.
2.45 pm
The gagging law has done exactly that: it has had a chilling effect and it has generated red tape. We should be honest about the fact that this law, which was passed under a coalition Government—ironically, an illiberal law passed with the Liberals in government—was intended precisely to serve the interests of the Liberal party. The Liberals were concerned that enough of their—[Interruption.] I am afraid that none of them is here this afternoon, which is a shame, but we have only a one-in-eight chance of them making a debate. That is disappointing, and it is a shame that they are not here to account for themselves. Because so many Liberal Democrat MPs were silly enough to sign up to a pledge on tuition fees and then break it, they were worried that there would be accountability at the subsequent election.
I am not arguing that student unions or any other charitable bodies should have gone into that election suggesting that people not vote for Liberal Democrat candidates who broke the pledge—or, indeed, Conservative candidates who broke it—because, as one of the parliamentary candidates who campaigned on the issue, I know that we are perfectly capable of doing that ourselves. However, it was entirely legitimate for student unions to approach the general election by talking about the policy platforms that parties put on offer and also the record of the incumbent.
I am afraid that sometimes the laws we pass in this place seem to be rather self-serving, rather than serving the public interest. The voluntary sector has a powerful role to play in speaking up, and not just for the broad set of beneficiaries that it serves. Rather, given the character of the voluntary sector in the United Kingdom, it is particularly important that charities working with some of the most marginalised and disadvantaged in our society have the freedom and encouragement to speak up for their beneficiaries, because as we sometimes see in our surgeries—although that is often where the most difficult cases arise—and as we certainly see on the campaign trail, on the hustings and in the corridors of this place, these are not filled with those who have the most to gain or lose from a change in Government or public policy.
Whether it is people suffering from issues such as homelessness, drug abuse, abject poverty or child abuse, or other forms of abuse or ill health, they are often not the people with the freedom or the funding to make their voices heard in this place as they should. That is why charities that work with them have such a powerful role to play in creating a more civilised politics and a more civilised country. For that reason, the power to make representations in new clause 3 would provide absolute clarity to charities that this is something we encourage and believe to be powerful and important, and I will certainly be supporting it.
In closing, let me say that these are points we made in Committee. We will see whether the Minister can be persuaded to accept our amendments this afternoon. I hope he can be, but I hope also that those following this debate are in no doubt whatever that, for all the headlines and the occasional bad press that the voluntary sector receives, there are a great many of us in this place who cherish the work that a vibrant and powerful voluntary sector does, both locally and nationally.