MPs have urged the government to “save the small charitable and community sector from impending collapse”.
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith has co-ordinated a letter to the prime minister, which was sent before Boris Johnson was admitted to intensive care, calling for a emergency fund for struggling small charities.
Tracey Crouch, who was the minister for civil society who oversaw the development of the Civil Society Strategy, is one of over 20 MPs from seven different parties who has signed the letter.
Other signatories include: Damian Green, Liam Fox, Danny Kruger, Yvette Cooper and Caroline Lucas.
The letter praised the NHS, but added: “Yet there is another group of people that span society as they help the most needy, often unrecognised and unknown – the community based charities. These groups may be invisible to many people most of the time, but as constituency MPs we have seen first-hand their significance in the firth against coronavirus.”
It has been one month since the first public warnings about the risk of charities closing because they cannot raise money during the crisis.
The Treasury is understood to be working on a bespoke package for the sector.
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