A backbench Labour MP has proposed a new All-Party Parliamentary Group that will seek to end the automatic right of religious groups to be given charitable status.
Sam Carling, MP for North West Cambridgeshire and former Jehovah’s Witness, will chair the APPG on spiritual and ritual abuse, which is expected to be established imminently.
Speaking to The Times newspaper, Carling said a key focus for the group would be “legislative changes to the coercive control laws, and to remove the automatic right of any group that sets itself up as a religion to be given charitable status”.
This will form part of the APPG’s strategy to tackle abusive, “cultish” religious groups that control their members through coercion, the National Secular Society said.
In December, Carling referenced the NSS’s Mission and Misogyny report during Prime Minister’s questions, a report that urged the government to scrap the “advancement of religion” as a charitable purpose.
Carling did not say whether he believed this should be removed as a charitable purpose, but told MPs that the report highlighted “alarming numbers of extremist organisations in the UK promoting hideous views about women” registered as charities.
He asked if Sir Keir Starmer would “support my campaign for a review of charity law and regulation so that we can make sure the UK taxpayer is not funding hate and extremism through this route”.
In response, the Prime Minister said the scale of violence against women was a “national emergency” and said he would look into the specific issues raised by Carling.
In February, Starmer pledged to give the Charity Commission “much stronger” powers to close charities that promote extremism, a move that some sector leaders warned could cause concerns across the sector, particularly for charities supporting minoritised communities.
Alejandro Sanchez, human rights lead at NSS, said the organisation was “pleased the proposed APPG shares our concerns around the seemingly automatic entitlement to charitable status for almost any religious group”.
Sanchez said: “There are many religious charities that do excellent work and serve a genuine public benefit. They should be allowed to register under an alternative charitable purpose, such as the alleviation of poverty.”
But Fadi Itani, chief executive of the Muslim Charities Forum, warned on LinkedIn that this policy area “requires careful, evidence-based consideration”.
He said: “Safeguarding must remain paramount, and any changes should follow proper consultation with the sector to ensure they are proportionate, targeted, and effective.
“Any proposed reforms to charity law, particularly around the advancement of religion as a charitable purpose, should be approached with caution.
“Faith-based organisations make a significant contribution to public benefit across the UK, and unintended consequences must be carefully avoided.”
He added that it was important for policy to be grounded in robust evidence rather than assumption or populism.
A spokesperson for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport said: “The vast majority of faith-based charities, across a wide range of faiths, are doing vital work furthering their charitable purposes and supporting their communities.
“Unfortunately, in a small number of cases, some charities are misused for non-charitable means. As part of efforts to tackle extremism, we are planning to strengthen the Charity Commission’s powers to ensure it has the tools it needs to tackle abuse of charitable status.”