Clause 11 - Prescribed animal welfare bodies
Hunting Bill
9:45 am
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire, Conservative)
I am certainly not suggesting that the RSPCA is perpetrating any kind of fraud and it would be quite wrong if I were to do so. However, the RSPCA's charitable status certainly ought to be considered from time to time. A body is not allowed to be a charity if it has party political allegiances. If a body makes an argument in favour of party political matters, it stops being a charity. As I understand it, the RSPCA escapes the net and maintains its charitable status because there are two or three Conservative Members of Parliament who are opposed to hunting and two or three Labour Members of Parliament who are in favour of it and therefore it is not, technically speaking, a party political argument, despite the fact that the bulk of people in favour of hunting tend to be Conservative and the bulk of people opposed to it tend to be Labour. The RSPCA is very close indeed to becoming a political campaigning organisation and presumably its standing could be questioned as a result.