Charity Commission chair appointee says he will not be dragged into ‘culture wars’

Onetime Tory candidate Orlando Fraser says he is no longer in party and not a friend of the prime minister'

The leading candidate to become the new chair of the Charity Commission has told MPs he will not allow the regulator to be dragged into media- and government-led culture wars" - and would even intervene to defend a charity that he felt had been unfairly treated.

Orlando Fraser, a onetime Tory parliamentary candidate with links to a rightwing thinktank, has been selected as the government's choice to run the watchdog. On Thursday he defended himself against criticism that he was a political appointee, saying he was no longer in the Tory party or even a Conservative.