Leading politicians are increasingly using the God card to win over the electorate, a new report shows today.

Labour has made the most use of "God talk", with Conservatives next and Liberal Democrats trailing far behind in their use of religion to make political capital.

The analysis of conference speeches by party leaders over the past decade shows Britain increasingly following the lead set by the US in exploiting the religious sentiment of political believers.

Religion has dominated an election as never before in the US, with the beliefs of Sarah Palin and Barack Obama in particular moving to the centre of the campaign.

While the UK has yet to see the development of a strongly evangelical "Religious right" such as that dominating much of US politics, the report shows how the last decade has witnessed a transformation from a climate where even to mention God was a no-go area.

Tony Blair's adviser Alastair Campbell famously said of the then-Prime Minister "We don't do God," but the tradition of reticence about religion in British public affairs was already fading as he said it.

Published to coincide with the start of the conference season, the report by Theos, the public theology think tank, shows that the greatest number of religious references occurred in 2001 when the party conferences took place soon after the 9/11 attacks.

Since 2001, however, there has been a continued rise in the use of religious rhetoric. The increase is not only explained by a concern about Islamism but also reflects a growing awareness of faith groups and their positive contribution in society, Theos said.

Researchers found that over the ten years of party conferences, Labour’s leaders made 98 religious references compared with 65 for the Conservatives and 23 for the Liberal Democrats.

Tony Blair dominated the field with a total of 84 references, compared with David Cameron’s 25 and Iain Duncan-Smith’s 24.

On the basis of averages, however, it was Gordon Brown who most often played the religious card. Last year, when he referred to “the sermons my father preached Sunday after Sunday," he made 14 religious references, compared with Blair’s average of 9.3 and Cameron’s 8.3.

In the 30 speeches examined, God was rarely invoked directly. In comparison, President Bush invoked God in 94 per cent of presidential addresses through the first six years of his presidency.

The director of Theos, Paul Woolley, said: “The increase in references to religious faith reflects an increased awareness of, and interest in, religious groups in our society.

“Faith groups represent a growing constituency in society and are often at the forefront of community activism. They are frequently the first in and last out in some of our most deprived communities.

“In some respects, politicians cannot afford not to do God.

“Talking God is not the same as ‘doing God’. It is entirely right that politicians should draw on religion to shape and inspire their rhetoric, but that is no substitute for what the Christian tradition sees as good leadership – governing with justice and mercy.”