THE Labour Party needs to
reconnect with faith groups, if it is to secure an electoral
mandate for a progressive programme. This is the premise of a new
essay by Stephen Timms MP, Shadow Minister for Employment and the
"faith envoy" of the Labour Party, and Paul Bickley, a senior
researcher at the think tank Theos.
Launched at the Labour
Party's conference in Brighton this week, the essay precedes two
reports published previously, Faithful Citizens (Comment, 27 April
2012) and Faithful Providers (News, 15
February), which have now been brought together as the final
report of the Demos
Inquiry into Faith, Community and Society.
Last year, Faithful
Citizens suggested that religious people in the UK were more
likely to place themselves on the Left of the political spectrum
than the Right. Earlier this year, Faithful Providers
argued that faith-based providers were "highly motivated and
particularly effective".
Noting that there are three
times as many people in church in London on Sunday than there are
members of the Labour Party nationally, the authors warn against a
"peculiarly Western European blindspot" to the resilience of
religion in public life: "Religion is not going away."
They argue that the Labour
Party must not make it harder for people of faith to get involved
with progressive politics, warning that it risks "the alienation of
sources of support that Labour can not afford to lose". Churches
have a "vital practical connection . . . with the lived experience
of people".
The essay also suggests that
Labour must not only "do God", but claim the themes of faith,
family, responsibility, and relationship that it has allowed to be
"owned" by the Conservative Party.
On Sunday, the leader of the
Labour Party, Ed Miliband, spoke at a service held at One Church
Baptist church. On Tuesday, its Minister, Dave Steell, said that Mr
Miliband had said that "any people-movement that is positively
influencing our society should be encouraged." It was
"unfortunate", however, that he was "less positive about the
motivation behind the churches' work".
On Monday, Jim Murphy, the Shadow Defence Secretary, listed
those who go to church among a list of voters at risk of alienation
by the Labour Party: "There needs to be a new language about
respecting diversity that is about some of those voters who live
their lives in a way that is entirely straightforward. They go to
church on Sunday, and they have an immeasurable sense of patriotism
. . ."