Coldplay and Lumley Join Calls to Overturn Kids Company Report

A host of celebrities, including the rock band Coldplay and the actor Joanna Lumley, have called for a controversial watchdog report into the late Camila Batmanghelidjh and her charity Kids Company to be overturned.

- Patrick Butler

In a letter to the Guardian, they say the Charity Commission report, which was critical of some aspects of the way Kids Company was managed, was inaccurate and unjust, and that it raised "serious concerns about regulatory ethics and impartiality".

Supporters of Batmanghelidjh will try to quash the report at a high court hearing this week as part of an attempt to clear her name and that of Kids Company, its staff and trustees.

Kids Company was one of the UK's best-known children's charities when it collapsed in dramatic circumstances in 2015. Batmanghelidjh, its charismatic founder, subsequently endured years of personal and sustained vilification at the hands of part of the media and politicians.

The letter says this week's judicial review is not just an attempt to bring justice for the charity and Batmanghelidjh but also seeks to uphold "the integrity of the entire charitable sector in the UK" by ensuring the commission's report is amended to be "consistent with the facts".