An announcement by the charity that its charismatic leader will stand aside follows an investigation by BBC Newsnight and Buzzfeed which claimed that the Cabinet Office had concerns about the charity's ability to run itself and was withholding £3m in funding.
Batmanghelidjh told Radio 4’s Today programme that officials were briefing the media against the charity in an attempt to discredit her.
Asked about claims that funds had not been properly accounted for and the effectiveness of the charity's services was in doubt, she said: “That’s a red herring – it’s not true.
"We have had audits in the past 19 years. All of them have been clear. We have raised £150m worth of money where we have had to process it and evaluate it.”
“This is briefing to avoid the real issues which is that we repeatedly challenged governments because they are not protecting children robustly. They are attempting to discredit me so that my message is weakened.”
It is understood the charity, which has an annual budget of around £20m, has been negotiating for weeks with the Cabinet Office over a one-off grant of £3m to enable it to restructure.
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