What can the charity sector expect from the new minister for civil society ?

Charities and social enterprises are starting the week with a new MP, following the resignation of Brooks Newmark over the weekend.

George Osborne’s former private secretary and Reading East MP Rob Wilson, has replaced the minister, after the Sunday Mirror revealed that Newmark had sent an explicit photo to an undercover reporter. The male journalist had posed as a female model, flirting with him on Twitter.

His replacement, Rob Wilson, is a familiar name to some in the sector after he complained to the Charity Commission earlier this year about a supposed lack of political neutrality by a charity. He also asked the commission to update its guidance on campaigning and political activity to include social media.

But the commission said it was “not clear that the charity (the Family and Childcare Trust) has acted contrary to our guidance on campaigning and political activity”.

Last year, Wilson voted for greater restrictions on campaigning by third parties, such as charities, during elections.

Asheem Singh, director of policy at ACEVO (Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations), told Guardian Voluntary Sector Network: “It must be a positive for the sector to have a minister in place who as parliamentary private secretary to George Osborne has been close to the Treasury and the political centre of government.

“He’s on a steep learning curve – a lot can go wrong as well as right before the next election and he arrives as the government’s relationship with the sector is not in the best condition. He’ll need to work closely with us to ensure it all goes as well as it should and we look forward to doing so,” he added.

Newmark, who had been in post since July, after a cabinet reshuffle saw him replace Nick Hurd, was met with much hostility by the sector after he famously belittled their work during his first major speech – suggesting that charities should “stick to their knitting rather than campaigning on political issues”. He was criticised for being out of touch, patronising and lacking in political skill.

The multi-millionaire, who owns the investment firm Telesis Management, has actively campaigned for more female involvement in politics and co-founded Women2Win, a Tory campaign to bring more women into parliament.

In articles discussing his resignation, newspapers referred to the post as that of “charities minister” and a number of tweeters said they’d never heard of the “civil society minister”.

In addition to his civil society post, Wilson, 49, will support the minister for the cabinet office, Francis Maude, on public sector efficiency and reform.

He is also a published author, penning political non-fiction book The Eye of the Storm, earlier this year.

The book takes a sympathetic view of the emotional impact that political scandals have had on MPs including Jacqui Smith and Andrew Mitchell.

The Oxfordshire born MP was previously a member of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), a centrist party founded by four senior Labour Party members in 1981 who felt the party had become too left-wing.

We asked our Twitter followers what they want from Wilson. Here’s what they said:

We were unable to reach Rob Wilson for comment this morning.

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