On Monday night Margaret Beckett made a speech that hammered the last nail in the non-partisan coffin for the Smith Institute. This is despite the Smith Institute currently being under investigation by the Charities Commission under Section 8 of the Charities Act for breaching their obligation to be politically impartial. It was insouciance to the point of hubris.

The speech would not have been out of place at a Labour party event, in fact it is clear that Beckett saw the 11 Downing Street gathering as a Labour party event, she talks about the “history of our Party”, what “we as a party did”, the virtue of being a “scourge of the Tory Party” – peppering her speech with criticisms of the contemporary Conservative party and David Cameron.

Gordon Brown attended as did most of the trustees, Lord Haskel brought knowing laughter from the audience when he said they would vigourously fight the Charity Commission’s investigation into their non-political status. Nevertheless Beckett went on to deliver a partisan speech with no regard to their charitable objective of education. She praised Gordon to the skies, lauding his record in office saying “..if, as I certainly hope we do, we have the architect of that amazing record, Gordon Brown, as our next Labour Prime Minister” and “Gordon – a man in whom the flame of social justice burns every bit as brightly as it did in John [Smith]“ and so on.

It is hard to see how the Charities Commission can allow them to continue to have charitable status any longer. The only beneficiary of this charity is Gordon Brown. Judge for yourself by downloading the speech obtained by a co-conspirator here.

Guido has already passed this speech to the Charity Commission investigation team.