Several celebrities have signed a letter calling for the Charity Commission to amend its critical 2022 report on the Kids Company charity.
Ahead of a judicial review this week, Coldplay singer Chris Martin, actor Joanna Lumley and former archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, among others, backed a statement that says the commission’s report “inaccurately depicts the reasons for Kids Company’s closure” and urges it to be changed.
The Good Law Project, which wrote the letter, is supporting former Kids Company clinical director Michael-Karim Kerman’s legal challenge to the regulator’s report, with a judicial review hearing due to begin tomorrow.
Kerman won the right to challenge the commission’s report following Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh’s death on 1 January last year.
‘Upholding the integrity of the entire charitable sector’
After the charity’s closure in 2015, Batmanghelidjh and Kids Company’s trustees were cleared of running an unsustainable business by the High Court in 2021.
However, a year later, the commission published an inquiry report, which says the charity should have built up reserves, ensured the board had the right skills and kept better records.
In addition, the report says the repeated failure to pay HMRC or its own staff on time amounted to formal “mismanagement in the administration of the charity”.
This week’s letter says the judicial review of the commission’s report was crucial not only for seeking justice for the charity and Batmanghelidjh “but also for upholding the integrity of the entire charitable sector in the UK”.
“The Charity Commission’s report raises serious concerns about regulatory ethics and impartiality,” it reads.
“The report inaccurately depicts the reasons for Kids Company’s closure, abjectly failing to acknowledge the harmful impact of unfounded allegations and external pressures on the charity.”
In response, a commission spokesperson said: “We will robustly defend the findings and conclusions of our inquiry into Kids Company at the High Court.”
