Reports say extremists are fundraising on the streets

Fears that extreme far right groups are posing as charities has sparked a Charity Commission investigation.

It follows a story in The Guardian claiming right wing Polish organisations, Idz Pod Prad and National Rebirth of Poland, are running charity campaigns in the UK and touting for donations.

The newspaper claims National Rebirth of Poland works with far-right organisation in the UK to help homeless people in a number of cities.

It also claimed EDL Angels, the English Defence League’s women’s arm, had been gathering donations for the homeless community.

Charity Commission rules state that a charity cannot be used as a vehicle for the expression of political or extremist views.

Fiyaz Mughal, the founder of Faith Matters, which works to reduce extremism, said: “This is a classic way of extremist groups reaching into communities.

“This is how extremist and far-right groups try and prey on vulnerable people and on wider populations, by reaching out to the vulnerable and to the needy and then manipulating them over time to their extremist narratives.”

A spokeswoman for the Charity Commission said that none of the organisations was legally defined as a charity.

"If an organisation claims to be a charity when it is not and solicits donations on that basis for charitable purposes, this would be a regulatory concern for the Charity Commission," the spokeswoman said.

"We will further assess the material provided on these organisations’ activities regarding outreach work with the homeless in order to determine whether this presents regulatory concerns and, if so, what regulatory action, if any, may need to be taken.

"These concerns highlight the importance of the public being able to identify genuine charities so that they can support them with confidence."