Labour voters believe MPs with religious faith should not become PM

Techne UK chief executive Michela Morizzo explains this week’s polls

Labour voters are most likely to oppose people with strong religious faith from becoming Prime Minister of the UK or First Minister of Scotland and Wales according to an exclusive poll for Express.co.uk. The survey of 1,624 voters by polling company Techne UK reveals that support for people with a religious faith holding high office has now dropped below 50 percent overall.

According to the polling while only 37 percent think that religious belief should be a bar from holding high political office just 45 percent agree it should not with 18 percent undecided.

Among Labour voters a majority of those who express an opinion believe that having a religious faith should be a bar from holding high office by 43 percent to 40 percent.

Support for leaders with faith is strongest among Conservatives with 48 percent believing it should not bar people from high office to 34 percent thinking it should.

The most likely to oppose religious political leaders are Green voters by 47 percent to 36 percent.

The results come amid a number of controversies over people with a strong Christian faith being questioned over whether they are fit for high office.

In the recent SNP leadership election Kate Forbes, who came a close second, was attacked for being an active member of the Free Church of Scotland who opposed the gender recognition reform bill and questioned having children out of wedlock.

Back in 2017, Tim Farron was hounded out as leader of the Lib Dems for being an evangelical Christian.

And just recently Lib Dem activists deselected David Campanale was deselected by Lib Dems in Sutton and Cheam as their parliamentary candidate because he was a practising Christian.

In 2021 Sir Keir Starmer apologised after he visited Jesus House in North London, an evangelical church, amid fury from Labour activists over its views on homosexuality.

In the past Jacob Rees-Mogg’s credentials for beoming leader of the Conservative Party have been questioned by Labour figures such as Yvette Cooper because of his views on abortion shaped by his Catholic faith.

Mr Rees-Mogg noted that Chritistianity is an integral part of the British unwritten constitution with the UK the Church of England still the state religion with the King at its head as Defender of the Faith.

There are also 26 Bishops sitting in the House of Lords.

Mr Rees-Mogg said: “It is reassuring that Conservatives are comparatively more tolerant of religious belief but worrying that there is such hostility to faith.

“The history and institutions of British society are steeped in Christianity and any understanding of how our nation works requires at least a tolerance of faith.”

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