THREE Christian MPs ranging across the political spectrum have praised the 18th- century abolitionist and social reformer William Wilberforce for putting his religious conviction above political ambition.
The Second Church Estates Commissioner, Marsha de Cordova (Labour); John Glen (Conservative), Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch; and the former Liberal Dem leader Tim Farron took part in a panel event at Holy Trinity, Clapham, in London, on Monday. The church has been marking its 250th anniversary this week.
Wilberforce, MP for Hull, attended the church with other members of the Evangelical group nicknamed the Clapham Sect, which campaigned the abolition of the slave trade and, subsequently, of slavery.
In his opening remarks, the Rector, the Revd Jago Wynne, who hosted the panel, referred to Wilberforce’s conversion from gambler and socialite to a more serious figure convinced that God had set before him “two great objects: the suppression of the slave trade and the reformation of manners”.
Mr Wynne was launching his new book, The Integrity Fix: The simple yet surprising path to spiritual and societal renewal (IVP), which draws on examples from the Clapham Sect.
Mr Glen, whose constituency is Salisbury, said that Wilberforce was “probably the most important example of someone whose faith led him into the public square. . . The primary driver throughout his political career was to be faithful to Christ, and that is a very, very powerful and counter-cultural driver that you don’t see today.”
He continued: “I see this every Conservative leadership election, and they happen quite often: there’s a surplus of self-belief, and a deficit in self-awareness.”
He was encouraged, he said, that Wilberforce “didn’t actually achieve high office at any office, yet he achieved more than many who have secured the highest office”. Similarly, the late Frank Field, a Labour MP and subsequently a crossbench peer, with whom Mr Glen had collaborated on food poverty, “didn’t achieve high office, but I always felt had enormous impact on all of us in the chamber”.
Ms de Cordova, whose constituency is Battersea and who worships at Holy Trinity, also referred to Wilberforce’s perseverance. “It took him multiple attempts, not once, not twice, not three times, many attempts more than 20 years” before the Slave Trade Act was passed in 1807. She said: “Tim and John will know: some MPs’ careers don’t last that long.”
Mr Farron, whose constituency is Westmorland and Lonsdale, praised Wilberforce for being a “complete Christian” who brought together two dynamics that, “too often, Christians can keep apart”: a belief in the need for personal salvation and a quest for great political reformation.
Mr Glen, speaking to the Church Times afterwards, said that the big issue that drove him was “the restoration of some measure of trust in politics”. The Labour Government had “struggled to secure the confidence of the nation”, he suggested. “The consequential rise in populism and polarisation in the conduct and form of our politics means the future direction is ever more uncertain, and the path to peaceful stable government seems even further away.”
Ms De Cordova, who is partially sighted, said that her driving issue was justice and equality for disabled women. Mr Farron said that his was standing up for “unpopular minorities” such as refugees. There was, he said, a “glass ceiling” for Christians in this country, but he suggested that it was “quite high”, pointing to the Scottish National Party’s Kate Forbes, former Deputy First Minister of Scotland, as well as “myself and others”.