Labour peer made the claim at the Labour Party conference

Charities are being punished and bullied by regulators while being unfairly targeted by negative media, a charity chair has claimed.

Baroness Young of Old Scone, chair of the Woodland Trust, made the claims at a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference.

The Labour peer singled out England’s Charity Commission and the newly created Fundraising Regulator as being heavy handed in dealing with the sector.

She said: "We are being reviled in the Daily Mail, not hugely well supported by the government and the tax man is trying to get as much tax out of us as he can and the Charity Commission has kindly forgotten that as well as having a regulatory role it is also meant to be a promoter and supporter of charities.

"So we are kind of feeling picked on."

The fundraising regulator had got off “on the wrong foot” she said and was punishing rather than supporting charities.

"To make that even worse the new Fundraising Regulator, which we all support as charities because it is an independent Fundraising Regulator supported by the charity sector, has set off on the wrong foot seeing as it is offering punishment rather than support and improvements," she said.

Baroness Young said the sector was not well supported by the government overall and called on a Labour government to improve this situation.

“If they want us to support people and services, they have got to support us. We’d like a much more supporting regulatory regime.

“And we would like to see a change in the rules for society lotteries, lifting the annual limit and lifting the draw limit.”