Why did the government break its own rules to fund David Cameron’s vanity projects?

The Big Society has long seemed like a joke to many communities across Britain, but now it has become a sham. In the last few days, thanks to the tenacity of my predecessor Gareth Thomas, we’ve learnt millions of pounds of public money were given to ‘Big Society’ organisations run by friends of the Conservative party. Organisations that seem to have been given special treatment by government despite the fact many of the projects they ran were utter failures.

In 2010 David Cameron held a launch party for the Big Society Network, an organisation founded and run by people with close links to the Conservative party, like Tory donor Martyn Rose. Big Society Network (BSN) went onto receive millions of pounds of public money and lottery funding. A lot of this money wasted on half-baked schemes, like the £800,000 project that promised to recruit one million members in a year but managed just 64.

Despite a string of failures, The Big Society Network continued to receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in grants from the Cabinet Office and Big Lottery. A National Audit Office report into some of these projects was damning – the government changed its own rules to allow BSN to bid for money, and put in applications once deadlines had passed. After the NAO announced its findings, there were accusations other organisations had been pressured to give money to Cameron’s pet projects.

This is more than embarrassing for David Cameron. It is shameful. At a time when so many charities are living hand to mouth, the lavish cheques being written to friends of the Conservative party are a kick in the teeth. Money that could have made a real difference to people’s lives, but was wasted on vanity projects. The least these organisations deserve is a level playing field, not special treatment for those who are closest to Ministers.

That’s why I’ve called for an investigation into the funding awarded to the Big Society Network. It’s time Francis Maude and David Cameron came clean about this mess and offered an honest account of their actions. How else can they expect charities or the public to trust them in future?

In defining the Big Society David Cameron said “There’s one word at the heart of all this, and that is responsibility” I could not agree with him more. Public money does not belong to whatever politician happens to be in power. The government has a responsibility to account for funds that were spent unwisely, and if political pressure was applied then someone must be held accountable.