Anglicans are still ‘Tory Party at Prayer’ but Muslims are Labour’s to lose
New research shows reality of “religious vote” in Britain
‘Voting and Values in Britain: Does religion count?’, a new in-depth analysis of voting data by the think tank Theos shows for the first time in the UK the relationship between religion and politics in Britain.
Despite a recent reputation for Church of England Bishops being “beardy lefties”, the research shows that self-identifying Anglicans are consistently more likely to vote Conservative. By contrast, self-identifying Catholics are more likely to vote Labour. The ‘nonconformist’ or ‘other Christian’ vote is more evenly split between the three main parties.
Minority religious groups are harder to be certain about because of small sample sizes but tend to be left-of-centre. In 2010, for example, Muslims tended strongly to vote Labour, as did Hindus and Sikhs less strongly. By contrast, the Jewish vote was more Conservative and Buddhist vote more Liberal Democrat.
As well as religious affiliation (which box people tick on a census question) the study looks at differences amongst those who attend regularly. While practising Anglicanism is usually more Tory than nominal Anglicanism, amongst Catholics regular and irregular attenders were equally likely to vote for Labour.
The phenomenon of “values voting” as seen in the United States shows no sign of taking hold here. Religious people care about the same things as everyone else- in 2010 all groups, irrespective of religiosity, rated the economy, immigration, the budget deficit and unemployment as their most important issues.
People’s political values are still influenced by their religion. For example:
- People who attend a religious service regularly, irrespective of religion are most consistently pro-welfare. Non-believers and nominal believers tend to be more hostile to welfare and more individualist. (Note 3)
- Anglicans are most consistently authoritarian in their political values, in such areas as law and order, respect for British values, and discipline at school.
- Catholics are the most left-wing of Christian groups. They are more welfarist than Anglicans and also less authoritarian.
- People from minority religions (the majority of whom are Muslim) are most consistently left-wing in their values.
- People of no religion are most consistently libertarian, taking a strong line against censorship, although they, like others, have become more authoritarian over the last ten years. They are also more sceptical towards management and more convinced that “ordinary working people do not get their fair share of the nation’s wealth”.
Nick Spencer, Theos’ Research Director and co-author of the report said:
“Every five years or so, someone claims that this or that religious (or non-religious group) might swing the election. Politics isn’t like that, however, and this report shows that religious block votes do not exist in Britain as many claim they do in America.
It does show, however, that there are clear and significant alignments between various religious and political camps, of which politicians should be aware.
At a time when mass party membership, political ideology and party tribalism are at a low ebb, we should pay attention to the big political values that shape our voting behaviour.”
NOTES:
1. Theos is a religion and society think tank which offers research and commentary on issues of religion, ethics and society. It was launched in November 2006.
2. The executive summary and full report can be downloaded as a free pdf files from theosthinktank.co.uk.
3. This research is a new analysis of existing data from the British Election Study http://www.essex.ac.uk/bes/ and British Social Attitudes http://www.natcen.ac.uk/our-research/research/british-social-attitudes/ undertaken by Dr Ben Clements at the University of Leicester and Nick Spencer at Theos think tank.
4. Further detail for this can be found at 5.18, 5.20 on pp.116-8 of the full report.
5. Press enquiries should be directed to:
Theos
77 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2EZ
T. 0207 828 7777 (Office Hours Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)
M. (07914) 723839 (Nick Spencer)
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