JustGiving at centre of row over huge cut from Bedford hero Captain Tom's £26million fundraising effort

Campaigners are calling on JustGiving to give 100 per cent of the cash raised by veteran Captain Tom Moore to the NHS.

Daily Mail journalist Andrew Pierce has blasted the "greedy commercial company" after he claimed it has made £2million off the back of the £26million raised by Captain Tom during his Marston Moretaine back garden walk.

He said JustGiving charge 1.9 per cent plus a 20p processing fee.

While Neil Coyle, the Labour MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, also tweeted: "After the London Bridge and Manchester Arena terror attacks and Grenfell ⁦@JustGiving never repaid the £500,000 taken (on top of admin fees). I hope they are not profiteering from the current crisis or public generosity towards the people affected."

A JustGiving spokesperson said: “97 per cent of all funds raised by Captain Tom will go directly to NHS Charities Together, as with any other charity fundraiser on JustGiving.

"The whole country has been inspired by Captain Tom’s campaign and our team has worked around the clock to support him and the hundreds of thousands of people donating through JustGiving. To mark Captain Tom reaching the £10million milestone on Thursday, we made a £100,000 donation to support his campaign.

"JustGiving abolished platform fees and moved to a voluntary contributions model in March 2019. Anyone using our platform has the choice to make a voluntary donation to support JustGiving if they choose to. Those donations go towards maintaining the technology that keeps our site running and secure 24/7 but people can of course donate nothing at all if they wish.

"A small processing fee is applied which covers card payment charges, which are set by external card providers, and the costs of processing millions of donations. This is in line with industry standards.”

Earlier today, Bedford Today revealed how a petition calling for Captain Tom Moore to be knighted has so far reached more than 800,000 signatures.