MP attacks charities’ ‘woke’ ideas
Quakers sign open letter to prime minister defending charities’ right to campaign
Britain Yearly Meeting (BYM) has backed a call to defend charities after a Conservative MP criticised the sector, following scrutiny of the controversial race report.
Quakers signed the open letter to the prime minister from the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations (ACEVO),defending charities’ right to campaign.
‘In a debate in parliament yesterday Sir John Hayes (Conservative) said that he and 20 other members of the House had written to the Charity Commission to complain about the Runnymede Trust’s response to the report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities. A report that has now been widely discredited including by academics referenced in the report and the UN.
‘Further to this Sir John asked for assurance from minister Kemi Badenoch that she make representations across government to “stop the worthless work – often publicly funded – of organisations that are promulgating weird, woke ideas…”
‘Many charities exist because the state has failed and a clear example of the failure of the state is a failure to dismantle race inequality in Britain’, the letter says. ‘This is not the first time that MPs have complained to the Charity Commission when charities have sought to raise awareness about or tackle the issues that are harming people that MPs are elected to serve. The changes that charities are asking for are not “worthless” or “weird” but focused on solving some of this country’s most enduring challenges.’
