So muc H for Christian charity!

Plymouth Brethren lose fight for charity status because ‘they do no public good’

MPs are demanding an inquiry into the Charity Commission after the watchdog banned a Christian group from charitable status on the grounds that religion is not always for ‘public benefit’.

More than 50 MPs from all the main parties have signed a Commons motion calling on the charity regulator to think again, amid fears that hundreds of religious groups could be stripped of their tax- exempt status, threatening their very existence.

They accuse the Charity Commission of ‘politically correct bias’ against faith groups after it ruled that the Preston Down Trust of the Plymouth Brethren Church – which has 16,000 members across Britain – is not entitled to charitable status because it does not do enough good works in the community.

MPs say the ruling is ‘outrageous’ because it ignored the way the group, which has enjoyed charitable sta-

tus for 50 years, runs soup kitchens for the poor and hospital visits for the sick.

Tory MP Robert Halfon said: ‘There is something rotten in the Charity Commission. I cannot understand why the Brethren, good people who do so much in their communities, have been singled out.

‘I believe an inquiry is needed into the role of the Charity Commission, to consider how it came to make the decision. What has happened is unjust and is creating fear in many churches across the country.’

Garth Christie, an elder in the Plymouth Brethren, described the decision as ‘a bolt from the blue’.

He said that he and the other members had spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on trying to prove their charitable status, and they would appeal all the way to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if necessary.

The group has already appealed to the Charity Tribunal in what is seen as a test case that could threaten the charitable status of hundreds of small religious groups.

Several MPs are threatening to table amendments to the Small Charitable Donations Bill before Parliament later this month in a bid to protect faith groups.

That would seek to overturn measures in the 2006 Charities Act which removed the presumption for charities that education, religion, or poverty relief are for the public benefit.

In a ruling that sent shockwaves through even the established church, the Charity Commission ruled that its decision ‘makes it clear that there was no presumption that religion generally, or at any more specific level, is for the public benefit, even in the case of Christianity or the Church of England’.

The commission’s decision will have a huge impact on the Brethren’s tax relief.

Some 53 MPs have signed a motion which ‘calls on the Government and all parliamentarians to express their belief to the Charities Commission that Christian groups who are serving the community have the right to charitable status and should not be subject to politically correct bias’.

The motion has been signed by Tory, Labour and Lib Dem MPs, the Scottish nationalists and MPs from the DUP, SDLP and Alliance Party from Northern Ireland.

MPs say the Plymouth Brethren have been discriminated against because they are a highly private group who prefer not to talk publicly about their good works. The MPs spoke out after Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, said he was ‘very concerned’ about the warning to Christian groups and called for a ‘strong fight’ to resist the secular drift of rulings from the Charity Commission.

A commission spokesman said: ‘We received an application for registration from the Preston Down Trust, a Brethren meeting hall.

‘The application from the Trust could not be accepted based on the information we received at the time, as we were unable to conclude that the organisation is established for the advancement of religion for public benefit within the relevant charity law.

‘We can’t speculate further about this matter while it is subject to an appeal.’

OCCASIONALLY, a cliff cascades into the sea. Are we about to see the same, in political terms, at the Charity Commission? The quango has just been savaged by MPs for threatening the charitable status of a conservative church, the Plymouth Brethren. MPs were appalled by the commission’s ‘bullying’. There is now a call for a clear-out of its ‘antiChristian’ executives by new chairman Willie Shawcross.

The commission decides which groups may be classed as charities. Pinkish pressure groups seem to have little difficulty becoming ‘good causes’.

In recent years, the Charity Commission has itself become Leftist. Blairite Dame Suzi Leather ( whom Mr Shawcross has replaced) ran it with snippety-lipped determination. Independent schools were menaced. Now the 16,000 Plymouth Brethren, whose women cover their heads in church and who prefer not to give communion to outsiders, are getting it in the neck.

Ed Miliband, in Government, pushed through the 2006 Charities Act. That forced charities, often at high cost, to ‘demonstrate’ value to society.

Churches are no longer automatically classed as charitable. The Brethren, who have gone about their good work since 1820, seem to have been picked on as a test case. The Brethren choose not to vote in elections. So maybe the commission thought MPs would not care about them.

Wrong. A Westminster debate this week erupted with anger at what MPs considered the Brethren’s mistreatment. Most speakers were Tories, but one or two Labour MPs joined in, as did Ian Paisley (DUP, N Antrim). He said the commission was trying to ‘crush the little guy’.

Is it so wrong for a church to give communion only to its members? Is this really a sin against the ‘inclusiveness’ demanded by Mr Miliband’s bossy law?

Robert Halfon (Con, Harlow), himself Jewish, is demanding heads roll at the Commission. ‘It seems to be run by anti-Christian secularists,’ he says. ‘I am sure William Shawcross knows it is outrageous. People should answer for it.’