There is a tradition as long as Christianity itself of the "turbulent priest", of bishops and church leaders taking on the political establishment.

David Cameron is unlikely to mete out the fate that the original "turbulent priest" Thomas Beckett received (being stabbed to death), for Archbishop Vincent Nichols.

But the harsh words this week from the new Cardinal, and from a coalition of CofE bishops, this close to an election year, echoes a more recent attack on some values of Conservatism by the clergy - that of 1996's 'Common Good'.

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Recent research carried out by the Christian think tank Theos, as well as by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University has shown that Church leaders are generally more pro-welfare and pro-immigrant than the average Anglican Christian. Catholics are more pro-welfare and marginally more left-wing than Anglicans.

"We found that the most frequent attenders of the churches tended to be much more welfarist, rather than people who describe themselves as nominally Christian. They feel strongly about poverty and the unemployed," said Elizabeth Oldfield, Theos' director.

The political alignment of many Christians on the left may surprise people of a secular inclination, because of church opposition to same-sex marriage, and particularly Catholic doctrine on the role of women in the Church. "The abuse crisis in the Catholic Church and the handling of sexuality and women bishops has done little for institutional trust in the Church of England," Rowlands added.

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