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How half of Gordon Brown�s Downing Street aides took over charities and think-tanks ... then carried on attacking the Tories

Eleven of the 25 special advisers have taken roles at the organisations
Mr Brown�s former spin doctor Damian McBride is head of media at Catholic charity Cafod
Other charities headed by former Labour figures include Citizens Advice and the NSPCC

By John Stevens For Daily Mail

Published: 23:12, 17 August 2014 | Updated: 08:01, 18 August 2014

Nearly half of Gordon Brown�s former Downing Street aides are working for charities and think-tanks through which they are accused of mounting a guerilla war against the Tories.

Eleven of the 25 special advisers who worked for Mr Brown in 2009 when he was prime minister have taken roles at the organisations, claimed to be used as vehicles for a pro-Labour agenda.

Charities are banned by law from supporting or funding political parties, but in 2008 Mr Brown changed the rules so they could join political campaigns.
Charities are banned by law from supporting or funding political parties, but in 2008 Gordon Brown (above) changed the rules so they could join political campaigns
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Charities are banned by law from supporting or funding political parties, but in 2008 Gordon Brown (above) changed the rules so they could join political campaigns

Tories say Labour supporters are using the charities to run campaigns critical of the Government that could help Ed Miliband get into Downing Street.

The list of Mr Brown�s former aides now in the charity sector includes Justin Forsyth, the chief executive of Save the Children, and Brendan Cox, the charity�s director of policy and advocacy.

Save the Children was criticised two years ago after it launched an appeal to help UK children for the first time. Tories said it was a political move against the Coalition.

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Gavin Kelly, who was Mr Brown�s deputy chief of staff, now heads the Resolution Foundation, which aims to improve living standards for low to middle-income families. He writes a blog that has regularly criticised the Coalition�s policies.
Child poverty in the UK - Save the Children 2013 advert
Gordon Brown�s former media adviser Damian McBride is head of media at the Catholic charity Cafod

The Charity Commission is looking into links between Labour and the Institute of Public Policy Research, a think-tank run by Nick Pearce, who was head of the policy unit at No 10. The IPPR has run nine �co-ordinated events� with Labour and Rachel Reeves, shadow work and pensions secretary, suggested it was developing policy.

Other charities headed by former Labour figures include Citizens Advice and the NSPCC.

Mike Dixon, the assistant chief executive of Citizens Advice, worked in the prime minister�s strategy unit under Mr Brown. Peter Watt, general secretary of the Labour Party from January 2006 to November 2007, is now a member of the NSPCC executive board.

Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: �There is clearly a revolving door between charities and the Labour Party.�

Chris Heaton-Harris, another Tory, added: �People will stop giving if they think that their money is being used for political purposes.�
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling warned of campaigns �hiding behind a veneer of neutral non-partisanship�
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Justice Secretary Chris Grayling warned of campaigns �hiding behind a veneer of neutral non-partisanship�

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling warned of campaigns �hiding behind a veneer of neutral non-partisanship�. He wrote in The Sunday Telegraph: �Britain�s professional campaigners are growing in number: sending emails around the country, flocking around Westminster, dominating BBC programmes, and usually articulating a left-wing vision which is neither affordable nor deliverable . . . An extraordinary number, moreover, are drawn from the ranks of the Labour Party.

�It is now the career route of choice: they can use that platform to attack this Government and make their name, lining up alongside former special advisers, MPs and councillors to argue for more spending, or to spread scare stories.�

After the floods here last year the only charity to help those in need was the salvation army----------nothing from the rest------------and thats what the rest get from me-------nothing-----------i now know they are politically motivated so they should be banned