Anglicans remain, overall, the ‘Tory party at prayer’. This is despite significant Anglican support for Labour in the north of England, and despite political interventions from the senior clergy which some commentators have seen as being particularly left-wing.
Tim Stanley, writing for The Telegraph, declared that “the Anglican Church is now the Labour Party at prayer”, in the wake of Justin Welby’s criticism of government changes to the benefits system in 2013.
But the Anglican laity generally remain loyal to the Tory Party, as shown in the graph, which draws on research by Westminster Faith Debates. In 2013, when asked how they would vote if an election was held the next day, 43% of Anglicans said Conservative, compared to 36% who said for Labour.
But all other groups were more likely to support Labour, by significant margins. Labour would have received votes from 55% of respondents from non-Christian faiths, 46% of Catholics, 41% of Nonconformists and 46% of those of no religious affiliation.
The Liberal Democrats received low levels of support across the board, gaining only 6% of support from respondents of other faiths and only 8% of Anglican support. Nonconformists showed the highest level of support for the Lib Dems (17%) – a trend that reflects historical associations of Nonconformism with the third party.
Among Presbyterians, 30% of respondents said they would have voted for ‘other’ parties (the SNP) in an election the next day. SNP support was only just behind the level of support for Labour (32%). This was a big shift from 2010, when Presbyterian votes for the SNP and Labour were 21% and 41% respectively (according to the BES CIPS 2010).
Overall, then, the Labour party continues to hold significant support from those religious groups that have historically supported it – Catholics, those of minority faiths, Nonconformists. Within the Church of England the majority of the laity remain loyal to the Tories – regardless of the actions and attitudes of its upper clergy.
(N.B. Respondents who selected ‘other’ or ‘prefer not to say’ when asked their religious affiliation are omitted here for clarity. Individual traditions within the 'Nonconformist' and 'Non-Christian religion' categories are grouped together due to small sample sizes).
This snippet is taken from our report Voting and Values in Britain: Does religion count? (pp. 61-63).
See the full report here and an Executive Summary here for further analysis of voting behaviour and religious identity.
Data source: Westminster Faith Debates/YouGov survey, January 2013. The survey consisted of 4,437 adults. Weighted data. See http://faithdebates.org.uk/
