The leaders of Britain’s biggest charities have told David Cameron that the fight against extremism will be damaged by new rules preventing them from using taxpayers’ money to lobby ministers.
More than 100 charity executives, including the heads of Oxfam, Scope, ActionAid, Mencap and Save the Children, have signed the letter.
They told the prime minister that the proposed rules flew in the face of his “big society” initiative and risked undermining his vow to champion social reform in prisons, welfare and education.
“You have repeatedly reiterated your commitment to social justice, which depends upon building alliances of grassroots organisations,” the letter says. “To say to those organisations that government will work in partnership with them but if they do they will not be heard