Why Catholics are turning away from Labour
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Polls suggest that, at this election, the Conservatives could take seats they’ve never won before. The class divide seems far less salient in this election than in the past. The potential breach of Labour’s “red wall” marks a significant shift in the demographics for today’s Labour and Conservative voters. With “Blue-Collar Conservatism” on the rise, and constituencies like Kensington and Canterbury going to Labour in 2017, an even greater shakeup could be afoot on December 12.
Naturally, Brexit gets a lot of the blame for the current sense of political flux. But it might not only be traditionally Labour-voting Midlanders and Northerners ticking Tory this Christmas. Labour could be set to lose more than just its disgruntled Brexiteers.
Typically, British Catholics have overwhelmingly supported Labour. In the 1990s, Labour held a 40 percentage point lead over Conservatives among Catholic voters. By 2017, this plummeted to a mere two percentage point lead. And it would not surprise me if this Advent Election sees Labour lose the majority it once held among Catholic voters.
One would think that a Catholic focus on social justice issues, such as workers’ rights, fair wages, and alleviating poverty, would make them natural Labour supporters. Instead, today’s Labour manifesto could prove hostile, at best, to a Catholic voter.
Labour’s proposal to “decriminalise abortions” is worryingly vague. Not mentioning a limit as to what this would allow, Labour’s proposal could lead to abortion on demand. Among Catholics, who are meant to value the life of the unborn, this should cause concern. The Catholic bishops of England and Wales released a statement in which they urged Catholics to consider how candidates will defend the life of the “child in the womb.” While none of the main parties is pro-life, some are certainly less pro-abortion-on-demand than others. In this battle over life, Labour certainly loses out among Catholics voters.
There are other incentives for Catholics to withdraw their support from the party. Labour’s decision to scrap the marriage allowance reflects a Labour Party that’s increasingly estranged from the fiscally liberal yet socially conservative voter. Moreover, Labour’s proposal to introduce self-declaration for transgender people and mandatory LGBT+ inclusive sex education in schools hardly acts as candy for Catholics.
The launch of Corbyn’s Race and Faith Manifesto, however, also fed Catholic scepticism of Labour’s intentions. The Race and Faith Manifesto should really be called the BAME Manifesto. The manifesto largely concerns BAME issues and includes few references to faith. And when it does cover matters of faith, it is often in the context of BAME communities. Ensuring that the views of communities with faith are “respected and protected across our society” comes across as an afterthought, and an entirely unsubstantiated promise.
Labour does concede that “society is all the richer for faith in action”. Somehow, however, I doubt this extends to welcoming the efforts of Muslim parents who protest outside schools over the proposed new sex education curriculum. I doubt also that Corbyn would be open to the view of the pro-life lobby. Corbyn supports faith in action if it translates into soup kitchens and church-run homeless shelters, but anything beyond this renders one a threat to the ideology of the party.
If Labour really wants to take a stand against faith-based discrimination and prejudice, perhaps the party should criticise the Liberal Democrats’ deselection of Rob Flello — a case in point of faith-based prejudice. Or, looking closer to home, perhaps the Labour Party should not have deselected Roger Godsiff because he backed protestors over the new LGBT curriculum.
Admittedly, the Conservative Party does not stand as the strongest Catholic ally. No matter how many times Jacob Rees-Mogg posts photos on Instagram of his family outside churches on holy days of obligation, the Conservative Party is far from universally adopting the motto of faith, flag, and family. All the same, when the alternative is Corbyn’s Labour, this election could see more Catholics than ever before backing the Conservatives.
