Christians and Politics Statistics
The results from a recent opinion poll conducted by Comres on behalf of Theos showed that voters with religious faith could have a big influence on the outcome of the general election this year. Comres surveyed the opinions of 1085 adults in February 2010 in order to discover their voting intentions and also their attitudes to various political issues such as religious freedoms in the UK.
Here are some of the results of the poll.
General support for the 3 main parties
· Support for the Conservatives stood at 38% (although at the time of the survey February 17th-18th 2010 this was a reduction in the support of previous weeks )
· Support for the Labour Party stood at 30% ( a small increase from earlier weeks in 2010)
· Support for the Liberal Democrats stood at 20% (a slight decrease on previous figures)
Support for the main parties from Christians, Muslims and those of no religion
· 57% of Muslims intend to vote Labour (although on 32% of Muslims say they are "absolutely certain" to vote)
· Support for the Conservatives amongst the group who say they no religion has grown dramatically since the 2005 from 21% to 34%
· Support for the Conservatives amongst Christians has increased since 2005 from 38% to 40%
· The Liberal Democrats are supported by 26% of those who have no religion and by 18% of Christians
· The Labour Party is currently supported by 30% of Christians
Views on how friendly political parties are to faith groups
· 22% of Christians thought the Conservative Party was the most friendly to their faith whilst 21% thought it was the Labour Party and 9% thought it was the Liberal Democrats
· 34% of Muslims thought that the Labour Party was the most friendly to Christianity whilst 17% thought the Conservatives were most friendly to Christianity and 9% thought it was the Liberal Democrats
· 43% of Christians did not know which party was the friendliest to Christianity
· 20% of those with no religion thought that the Conservatives were the friendliest to their beliefs whilst 16% thought it was the labour Party
· 49% of Muslims thought the Labour Party was friendliest to Islam whilst 9% thought it was the Liberal Democrats who were the friendliest to their faith, only 6% thought it was the Conservatives.
· 37% of Christians thought the Labour party had been the friendliest political party towards Muslims whilst 12% of Christians thought it was the Conservatives who were friendliest towards followers of Islam.
· 21% of Christians identified the labour party as the political party who had been the least friendly generally to faith groups whilst 18% thought it was the Conservatives and 9% the Liberal Democrats
· Those of no religion think that the Conservative Party had been the party who were least friendly generally to faith groups whilst 14% thought it had been the Labour Party
Opinions on whether religious freedoms have been restricted in Britain over the last 10 years
· 59% of all respondents said freedoms had not been restricted
· 32% of all respondents said they thought freedoms had been restricted
· 33% of Christians and 53% of Muslims thought that freedoms had been restricted. 34% of members of other faiths said that religious freedoms had been restricted
· 60% of Christians, 45% of Muslims and 55% of followers of other faiths said they felt religious freedoms had not been restricted over the 10 years.
Opinions on whether extreme political parties should be banned in democracies
· 43% of Christians, 65% of Muslims, 71% of members of other faiths and 32% of those with no religion said extremist parties should be banned.
Opinions on whether religious leaders have a responsibility to speak out on political issues they are concerned about
· 69% of Christians, 88% of Muslims, 56% of members of other faiths and 51% of those with no religion said religious leaders should speak out
The full report can be downloaded from the Theos website.
Another related Theos report which may be of interest is Religion and Identity: Divided Loyalties? by Sean Oliver-Dee
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