Charities' voices are vital to the Brexit debate

Charity Commission advice to steer clear is misguided and will lead to an EU debate conducted only by business leaders and politicians

Earlier this week the Charity Commission warned, in new guidance, that charities should only enter the EU referendum debate in exceptional circumstances, and those that do will be closely watched by the regulator. It is clearly intending to deter charities from getting involved - which, in my opinion, will be detrimental to the debate.

This European referendum is arguably the single most important decision of a generation and the ramifications are too great to be allowed to be dominated by private sector and party political voices alone. The new guidance is also at odds with what the prime minister said in Davos on 21 January: "that business, NGOs and other organisations won't hold back" in campaigning to stay in the EU.