TONY BLAIR told an audience of evangelical Christians in Lambeth this week that it would be “unhealthy” if religion got too mixed up with politics.
“I do not want to end up with an American style of politics with us all going out there beating our chest about our faith,” he said.
His message appeared to be directed at Michael Howard and the Conservatives who, possibly influenced by the electoral success of George Bush in attracting Christian votes, recently raised the issue of abortion back up the agenda to the applause of Church leaders.
This is, at first sight, a paradox: Mr Blair is the most devoutly Christian prime minister of this country for a generation. His Cabinet is full of similarly pious politicians, and he leads a party which is increasingly driven by faith-based values of voluntarism and social co-operation. By contrast, the Tories have replaced Iain Duncan Smith’s Roman Catholic moralism with Michael Howard, a semiobservant Jew, who leads a Shadow Cabinet dominated by lax, if not lapsed, Anglicans.
One answer may be found in the increasingly secular and multi-ethnic character of British society. Figures published in the UK Christian Handbook suggested that at the current rate of decline, total church membership across Britain would have fallen to 5,598,000 by this year, down by more than a million people in 15 years.
Over the same period the number of church buildings would have fallen by 1,400 to 48,600 and the number of clergy will have dropped by 1,000 to 35,400.
The declining interest in organised Christianity contrasts with the findings of the 2001 Census, which included a voluntary question about religion for the first time. Seventy-two per cent of the population said that they were Christians.
The Handbook acknowledges an “obvious yawning gap” between professing Christianity and committing to it by attending church.
Alastair Campbell, Downing Street’s former communications chief, was instrumental in stopping Mr Blair from making more of his faith, saying bluntly: “We don’t do God.” When the Prime Minister sought to end his address to the nation on the eve of the Iraq war with the message “God bless”, it was Mr Campbell who told him to take it out, arguing that people did not want religion rammed down their throats. Mr Blair acquiesced while muttering to his advisers: “You are the most ungodly lot.”
Such scenes would be unthinkable in Mr Bush’s White House, where Bible class is said to be more or less obligatory. Yet it remains the case that Mr Blair’s Government is deeply religious.
Gordon Brown’s worldview was built in the Presbyterian pulpit where his father once preached, while Jack Straw, Tessa Jowell, Ruth Kelly, Paul Boateng and Hilary Armstrong are devout Christians. Some still prefer to hide their faith under a bushel, but the next generation of ministers, such as Douglas Alexander and Hazel Blears, are perhaps even more open about their religion than the current Cabinet. There is also the likelihood of David Blunkett, another notable Labour Christian, returning to high office soon.
Leading lights of the early Labour Party too were Christians. Keir Hardie preached regularly on the Sermon on the Mount, and Philip Snowden, the first Labour Chancellor, entitled his main political tract The Christ that is to Be. But religion never found the same purpose in British politics as in America: the faith of George Lansbury, the prewar Labour leader, meant that he failed miserably at realpolitik.
The faith of today’s Labour politicians appears to be more active than that of their counterparts on the Conservative front bench. Tim Montgomerie, the former director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said: “There is a reluctance among a lot of Tory politicians to have a confessional approach to religion in politics. It’s a very English approach. When Tony Blair became Labour leader, the Conservative Party at the time objected very strongly to the way he used religion, being photographed going to church and so on. It was something the Tories, and also the English, didn’t feel comfortable with.”
There are, of course, exceptions. Liam Fox, the Tory co-chairman who has close links with US Republicans, has published a prayer for the abolition of abortion. Mr Blair’s remarks this week show that he does not want the divisive agenda of America’s Religious Right to taint British politics.
But he does want churches to play a bigger role, saying that they can make a “visible, tangible difference” in the voluntary life of the nation, helping with the modernisation of public services in ways the State cannot.
Such remarks echo the 19th-century Christian socialist tradition of a party which, it was always said, “owed more to Methodism than to Marx”.
The Tories’ support for “traditional family values” and their residual resistance to extending gay rights appears to echo the Religious Right in the US. But it is more likely to be sourced in the vaguely Christian conservatism of an older generation of politicians. George Osborne, the Shadow Treasury Secretary, is more typical of younger Tories. He said recently that although he was a member of the Church of England, he disagreed with it on issues such as the ordination of gay priests.
In 1996 Mr Blair described his fascination with Pontius Pilate, saying that the decision to hand over Christ for crucifixion was that of “an archetypal politician, torn between principle and reality”.
Mr Blair said in his speech this week: “Politics and religion — it is not that they do not have a lot in common, but if it ends up being used in the political process, I think it is unhealthy.”
Should religion be a part of British politics?
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THE CABINET
JACK STRAW
FOREIGN SECRETARY
A devout Christian who reached out to other faiths. “I am proud to represent the interests of my 25,000 Muslim constituents, as well as 75,000 who are mainly white, Christian, Catholic, Protestant, or, as some would say, of ‘no religion’.”
HILARY ARMSTRONG
CHIEF WHIP
Former vice-president of Christian Socialist Movement who once said: “We weren’t put on Earth to enjoy ourselves.”
TESSA JOWELL
CULTURE SECRETARY
Discovered her faith in the early 1990s; now attends church every Sunday.
PAUL BOATENG
TREASURY CHIEF SEC’Y
Methodist lay preacher.
PAUL MURPHY
N. IRELAND SEC’Y
Catholic Labour
JOHN PRESCOTT
DEPUTY PM
Atheist who dislikes “all that mumbo-jumbo”. Said Blair was acting like Jesus by refusing to take a pay rise and that Cabinet was starting to resemble a prayer meeting.
JOHN REID
HEALTH SECRETARY
Lapsed Catholic whose roots show in his unease over abortion.
ALAN MILBURN
CABINET OFFICE
Has abandoned Marxism but remains an atheist.
CHARLES CLARKE
HOME SECRETARY
Views unknown.
PETER HAIN
LEADER OF COMMONS
Described as “basically agnostic”.
ALISTAIR DARLING
TRANSPORT SECRETARY
Friends say he is not interested in religion.
GEOFF HOON
DEFENCE SECRETARY
Social conservative but does not attend church.
LORD FALCONER OF THOROTON
LORD CHANCELLOR
Aides say he is a “non-practising” Christian.
IAN MCCARTNEY
LABOUR CHAIRMAN
Not known to have any interest in religion.
BARONESS AMOS
LEADER OF LORDS
“This is private. No comment”.
HILARY BENN
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEC’Y
“No comment”
PATRICIA HEWITT
TRADE SECRETARY
Brought up as a Christian but not practising.
ALAN JOHNSON
WORK AND PENSIONS
“No comment.”
THE SHADOW CABINET
MICHAEL HOWARD
OPPOSITION LEADER
Semi-observant Jew who attends synagogues at new year and on the Day of Atonement. His son, Nick, is training to be an Anglican priest.
DAVID CAMERON
HEAD OF POLICY
Church of England
TIM COLLINS
SHADOW EDUCATION SEC’Y
Church of England
DAVID DAVIS
SHADOW HOME SEC’Y
“No comment.”
ANDREW LANSLEY
SHADOW HEALTH SEC’Y
Church of England
OLIVER LETWIN
SHADOW CHANCELLOR
Non-observant Jew, who identifies culturally with being Jewish, but champions religious freedom.
DAVID MACLEAN
CHIEF WHIP
Brought up in Church of Scotland, but recently said to be getting interested in Catholic theology.
THERESA MAY
SHADOW FAMILY SEC’Y
A regular at Church of England services
CAROLINE SPELMAN
SHADOW LOCAL GOVERNMENT SEC’Y
Church of England
LORD STRATHCLYDE
OPPOSITION LEADER IN THE LORDS
Views unknown.
JOHN REDWOOD
SHADOW DEREGULATION SEC’Y
Church of England whose leadership bid in 1995 included a pledge to expel “adulterers” from his Cabinet.
LORD SAATCHI
CO-CHAIRMAN
Jewish-born but said to have “lost his faith”. Donated a six-figure sum to synagogue in honour of his parents.
NICHOLAS SOAMES
SHADOW DEFENCE SEC’Y
Said to be traditional high Anglican, although aides yesterday refused to comment.
DAVID WILLETTS
SHADOW WORK AND PENSIONS SEC’Y
“I’m a Christian but I’m not an active church-goer.”
TIM YEO
SHADOW ENVIRONMENT AND TRANSPORT SEC’Y
“Christian.”
FIVE WHO KEEP THE FAITH
TONY BLAIR
PRIME MINISTER
An ecumenical Christian who attends Roman Catholic services with his family but remains Anglican. He takes a keen interest in the other Abrahamic faiths of Islam and Judaism. His values are rooted in his faith far more than in the Labour Party. He has been quoted discussing how he would justify the Iraq war to his “Maker”.
GORDON BROWN
CHANCELLOR
The son of a Scottish Presbyterian manse, he went to church three times on Sunday while growing up. He has carried into politics some of the stiff compassion he learnt at his father’s pulpit, not least in his missionary zeal towards Africa. Although the Labour Party may sometimes appear to be his true church, Mr Brown still attends services and found solace in his faith after the death of his parents and newborn daughter.
RUTH KELLY
EDUCATION SECRETARY
A member of the Opus Dei Roman Catholic movement made infamous by Dan Brown’s bestselling — but fictional — book, The Da Vinci Code. She insists that her private religious beliefs will not influence her decisions as a minister.
MICHAEL ANCRAM
SHADOW FOREIGN SECRETARY
A devout aristocratic Roman Catholic, close friend of Cardinal Cormac Murphy- O’Connor from when he was a bishop responsible for Mr Ancram’s constituency.
LIAM FOX
CO-CHAIRMAN
A Roman Catholic who recently said that he attends “pretty much any Christian church, if appropriate”. In 2001 he advocated a “huge restriction if not abolition” of abortion in a personal prayer selection for a book published by the centre-right Conservative Christian Fellowship.
