An amendment that would have removed charities from the Lobbying Bill and the Political Parties Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) was torpedoed by the Charity Commission in a key debate in the House of Lords on Wednesday night.

Earlier in the week support for the move had been building within the Lords for the amendment tabled by Lord Phillips of Sudbury, the leading charity law expert and Liberal Democrat peer.

However, the wind was taken out of his sails by an eleventh hour letter to Lords from the Charity Commission, in which they reiterated their opposition to any exemption, claiming it was not in the best interest of public trust and confidence in charity.

The charity Directory of Social Change and others have been campaigning for the exemption for months on the grounds that the Lobbying Bill represents not just a threat to charities’ legitimate campaigning, but a case of needless and costly regulatory duplication.

Charity law already prohibits charities from having political purposes, or objects, and they cannot engage in politically partisan activities.

The current bill expands the scope of what can be construed as influencing elections – including legitimate day-to-day activities of many charities – and will have a disproportionately burdensome impact on small organisations.

Jay Kennedy, director of policy and research at the Directory of Social Change, said: "We don’t agree with the Charity Commission’s arguments – in fact we’re completely stunned by some of their points which seem to imply they aren’t capable of properly regulating the charity sector’s campaigning.

"Further, the Commission’s job is to apply the law, not make it. Their extraordinary intervention clearly had an impact on the debate at a key point.

"We’re bitterly disappointed the charity exemption has so far not been supported by the Lords or the Government. Surely the Government must be able to see common sense even at this late stage.

"Despite the amendments passed in the Lords, the Bill remains a complete mess. It will tie up even very small organisations that want to campaign on behalf of their beneficiaries with costly and burdensome red tape, for little perceptible public benefit.

"Including charities in this legislation flatly contradicts the Government’s voluntary sector policy to date, which has been in large part about removing unnecessary regulatory burdens on charities."

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