Pickles wants government departments to insert anti-lobbying clauses into funding agreements
A UK government minster has been lambasted for calling government-funded charities “sock puppets.”
Communities secretary Eric Pickles (pictured below) wants government departments to impose anti-lobbying clauses into funding agreements for charities and non-governmental bodies to prevent them using taxpayers’ cash against the government.
Pickles said: "The Institute of Economic Affairs has undertaken extensive research on so-called 'sock puppets'; it has exposed the extensive practice of taxpayers’ money being given to pressure groups and supposed charities, in turn being used to lobby the government and parliament for more money and more regulation.
“This is an issue which needs to be addressed."
Pickles gave the example of local enterprise partnerships in England which receive public funding but are not charities – hiring public affair consultancies to lobby government.
He said the practice had become “endemic.”
He added: "My department has set an example to the rest of Whitehall by amending our standard grant agreements to impose a new anti-lobbying, anti-sock puppet clause.”
Squalid attempt by a secretary of state to get charities to dance to the tune of government in an election year - Stephen Bubb
The statement has caused widespread revulsion among charities – with some relating the remark to Brooks Newmarks’ comment that charities “should stick to their knitting” and refrain from lobbying.
John Downie, director of public affairs at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, said: “Let’s make no mistake about what’s happening here. This is the continuation of an orchestrated attack against charities to undermine their campaigning efforts on behalf of the most vulnerable people in our communities who are bearing the brunt of Westminster’s welfare cuts.
“This is all part of a clumsy effort to silence charities and damage the public’s trust in charities but we won’t sit back and let that happen.
"Mr Pickles has demonstrated a frankly embarrassingly poor understanding of how charities work and their fundamental role to give a voice to the most marginalised people in our society and hold the government to account.
“This is something which we vehemently protect in Scotland and we urge our colleagues in the rest of the UK to do likewise.”
Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of Acevo, the charity leaders body, called the statement "a squalid attempt by a secretary of state to get charities to dance to the tune of government in an election year".
Bubb said: "Let’s be clear what influencing means here: charities must be free to speak about the injustices they see on the ground, whether they are contracting with government or not.
“And governments should be willing to listen, not close their ears to the effects of their policies."
A spokesman for the National Council for Voluntary Organisations said that the organisation had written to Pickles while Neil Cleeveley, chief executive of the local infrastructure body Navca, said: "I think this side-swipe at charities that speak up for the communities they serve is uncalled for.
“The minister gives himself away by using the phrase ‘supposed charities’. It’s not for ministers sitting in Whitehall to decide what is and is not a charity or what is legitimate charitable activity – that’s for the Charity Commission.
“I suspect he would rather not have charities campaigning to improve their communities – rather that we just kept to our knitting."
