Almost two thirds of people who plan to vote Conservative at the next general election think charities are currently striking the right balance in their political lobbying and campaigning.

Less than a quarter (22%) of Conservative Party voters believe charities are too political, which has been a criticism levied on civil society organisations by the party’s MPs and government ministers in recent years.

A minority (7%) of voters for the Party believe charities should be more political.

The poll has been carried out by Savanta for New Philanthropy Capital (NPC) between September and October this year.

NPC’s findings, and other surveys carried out in recent years, suggests criticism of the campaigning role of charities by Conservative Party MPs and ministers is out of step with their voters.

Earlier this month a survey by Enthuse found that 59% of the public believe charities are best placed to support those in need. This is twice as many as those who believe local and central government can be trusted to support disadvantaged people.

Last year more than three quarters of charity representatives believe politicians’ attitudes to civil society campaigning has worsened.

Attacks on charities in recent years from Conservative politicians have come from former Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, who criticised civil society organisations for running campaigns that tackled their slave trading past.

Two years ago, the Charity Commission threw out Conservative Party MPs’ complaints against equality charity Runnymede Trust for criticising a government backed report that claimed it could find no evidence of institutional racism in the UK.

'Civil society test'

“If you want our public services to innovate and progress, in areas from mental health to reducing re-offending, you need to embrace the charity sector - not treat it like a difficult relative to be patronized at best and ignored at worst,” said NPC chief executive Dan Corry, who is a former head of Number 10’s policy unit.

He is calling on the government to introduce a ‘civil society test’ for new policies. This would mean all new policies should be assessed to see if they can be more efficiently delivered by charities and other social organisation rather than businesses and the public sector.

Given support for charities from the public, including from Conservative Party voters, Corry believes that backing civil society could be advantageous for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of the next election.

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