According to a poll by the Bible Society reported in the Church Times, the Church of England is no longer the Conservative party at prayer. Instead they are more likely than the general population to be voting for centrist or left-wing parties.
A survey of 1214 “active” Christians — people who attend church at least once a month, drawn from the Bible Society’s panel of some 5000 churchgoers — was carried out in the UK in the first two weeks of June, and published on Friday.
Of all respondents, 70% said they intended to vote for left-wing or centre-left parties compared with 57% in a comparable YouGov survey of 2144 of the UK’s ageneral adult population.
The poll also cut the data by denomination – finding that the Conservative vote had declined among Anglican churchgoers with just 20% planning to vote Tory compared with 38% who planned to do so in 2019.
Even older churchgoers were also more likely to vote centre left than the general population. Among churchgoers aged 65-plus, 39% said that they would vote Labour, compared with 22% of the general population of this age group. And clergy were more likely still to vote Labour, at 50% compared with 40% for churchgoers.
Read the full story here. See the bishops’ excellent PrayYourPart election preparation, of daily thoughts & prayers, here.
Above all the church is keen to see fair voting based on honesty, integrity and respect for candidates and people with different views. The Archbishop of Canterbury recently wrote on X:
“In these last few days before the election, let us pray for all candidates taking part in this most essential act of democracy….Let us encourage courteous and kind debate and not use personalised abuse. Let us carefully consider issues and the common good, and above all vote.”