Charities should criticise the government if they disagree on controversial policies areas such as immigration or the environment, the UK culture secretary has said, as she announced plans to restore civil society organisations to “the centre of our national life”.
Lisa Nandy said publicly speaking out was “critical to a healthy, functioning democracy” and that charities should “tell government where we’re getting it wrong and work with us to set it right”. She indicated they should no longer be told to “stick to their knitting”, a reference to a criticism by a previous Conservative government that charities had strayed too far into politics.
