The UK's biggest charities were criticised yesterday for their mainly white, middle-aged and middle-class leadership.

|TOP|According to the results of a recent study, there is currently only one chief executive from an ethnic minority community and one with a disability among the UK's top 50 charities.

According to Third Sector magazine, the only non-white chief executive is Daleep Mukarji of Christian Aid, who is Indian, while the only CEO with a disability is Jackie Ballard of the RSPCA, who is blind in one eye.

Victor Adebowale, chief executive of the charity Turning Point which is outside the top 50, told Third Sector: "You can wrap it up and call it whatever you like, but it's racism. I think there should be a wide-ranging inquiry because it's pretty serious. Then there should be a series of national recommendations."

Third Sector's survey of the UK's top 50 fundraising charities, as named by the Charities Aid Foundation, showed that 64 per cent of chief executives were male and 36 per cent were female.

Their average age was 53 and 92 per cent named their ethnic group as white European.

|AD|Just over half (52 per cent) were Christian, while 63 per cent said they followed a religion.

One in ten chief executives had previously worked in the armed forces, 55 per cent had come from the private sector and 9 per cent from the public sector.

Nearly a third (32 per cent) were public school-educated, 64 per cent had been to state school and 9 per cent went to an independent or grant-funded school.

Stephen Cook, editor of Third Sector, said: "The fundamental problem is that there isn't a level playing field in British society. But the voluntary sector should be a trailblazer for inclusiveness, and our research shows that in the upper reaches that is not the case, except in increased opportunities for women."

Andy Rickell, executive director of diversity politics and planning at disability charity Scope, said the results raised serious concerns.

"I would argue that the [voluntary] sector's workforce should be even more diverse than society as a whole," he said. "Unless voluntary sector bodies reflect the people they claim to represent, they will be following a paternalistic approach."

However, gender diversity has improved in the voluntary sector. According to studies, more than a third (36 per cent) of the top 50 are led by women, compared with just 10 per cent in the private sector.