Is there a Tory voice for the voiceless?

Judging by last week's local election victories, the next Government may well have a true blue hue. And with that in mind the Church is talking long and hard to the Conservatives

Last week's local election results are seen by many commentators as signalling a profound shift in British politics. Labour suffered its worst election performance for 40 years, winning a mere 24 per cent share of the vote. The Conservatives gained a 44 per cent share giving its front bench a confidence that its 11 years in the political wilderness may be coming to the end.

The result will lead to more serious scrutiny of Tory policies, not least by the Church. How do they measure up to Catholic ideas about social justice, family values, poverty and a voice for the voiceless so often perceived as sitting more comfortably with the politics of the Left than the Right? What strategies will Christians adopt to ensure that their voice is being heard by the new wave of politicians?

The Church has long wrestled with uneasiness over the extent to which it should assert its influence in the political field or voice allegiances. Twelve years ago, in the dying months of the last Conservative Government, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales published its famous "Common Good" document, which set out its social teaching and its vision for Britain. "As political feelings inevitably become more heated and partisan, we judge this to be an opportune moment to try to maintain or even seek to raise the level of public debate," they wrote.

The document reminded Catholic politicians of their obligations towards the poor and disenfranchised, appealing to them to use their positions to work for social justice. A decade later, the Church is trying to activate Catholic voices in politics in other ways, notably through its Parliamentary Internship scheme, now in its fourth year, which sponsors the placements with Westminster- and Brussels-based politicians of up to eight recently graduated Catholics. The idea is to develop the lay vocations of those taking part and boost links between the bishops' conference and Catholic politicians. There are currently three interns working in the offices of Catholic MPs in Westminster and two more are in Brussels with MEPs. Damien Green, shadow Minister for Immigration, says he is delighted with the experience of mentoring his intern, was had just graduated from Oxford University, as part of the bishops' scheme.

"The idea is to develop long-term links between the party and the Church," he says. "It is assumed that those interested in the internship are likely to go into politics in later life and it means that channels of communication are open between individual MPs and the Church."

Mr Green, a Catholic and Conservative MP for Ashford, says that the party is positively seeking out the help of Catholics. "We are working with voluntary groups and faith groups in some of the poorest parts of the country to learn the best ways to combat poverty. The Church has thought deeply on these issues and has a lot to contribute of value to the Conservative Party."

William Hague, shadow Foreign Secretary, agrees, saying, "The Conservative Party has always been receptive to the views of the Christian Churches," and that there are many subjects on which they can work together. Taking human trafficking as an example, he adds: "If we are to create a real sense of injustice over the use of slave labour in our society, a moral appeal must be made and ethical framework must be established. Only when these two groups [political and religious] work simultaneously will there be any hope of eradicating this scourge of the modern world."

However, Alun Michael, chairman of the Christian Socialist Movement and Labour MP for Cardiff South and Penarth, argues that Labour remains in a better position to work with the Churches. "While Labour is currently going through a difficult period, its overall vision of a society in which all - not just the wealthy - benefit remains unchanged," he says. "We believe that the Churches have a role in designing that future."

One problem for the Catholic Church is that it can be controversial for MPs to associate themselves too strongly with any religion.  William Hague recently told an audience at Westminster Cathedral that the Conservative Party didn't "do God in a corporate way", saying that it was not a good idea for a politician to link his or her faith to their espousal of particular policies. "You only run into trouble if you're promoting a specific policy," he said. "But usually it's better to be very clear where you stand on religion in general terms."

Last year, in an unprecedented move indicating the concern the Church feels over some matters of current policy, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor held a reception to which he invited all 68 MPs who identify themselves as Catholic to discuss in confidence "issues likely to come before the House in the new session of Parliament". The archbishop told the 25 who attended that there was "suspicion" and "palpable hostility" in some quarters towards those with a religious world view, particularly Catholics in public life. The Church's mission in the public arena was "not about bishops" but a job for dedicated lay people, he told MPs.

One of those who attended the reception was Paul Goodman, a shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government, who says that the principal way in which the Catholic voice is heard by politicians is through constituents rather than bishops. "MPs are most conscious of the Church from the ground rather than the top," he says. "The Catholic voice isn't heard often but when it is we know about it."

Mr Goodman, MP for Wycombe, points to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, due to be debated in the House of Commons next week, as one of the issues in which the Catholic voice has been heard most clamorously. "We're receiving a lot of emails, letters and phone calls about this and the Church is campaigning actively on it," he says.

Other than last year's reception, there is little formal interaction between the bishops and Catholic MPs, though Mr Green says that he receives briefings and information on certain issues of concern to the Church and that he can go to the Church for guidance.

Meanwhile, one Christian group with no reticence about making a political impact is the Oasis Trust, an evangelical organisation that already runs schools, housing projects and churches around England. Next month it will open the Oasis Centre in Westminster, which it says is "dedicated to the Church's engagement with social justice, government, media and business". The project, endorsed by the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, will train what it hopes will be tomorrow's leaders and serve as a forum for debate to improve relationships between the Government and faith groups.

The Conservative Party is also reaching out to faith groups and the voluntary sector, in particular with regard to its work on poverty. Mr Goodman says that this is an area in which the party would like to change its image.

"For a long time, especially during the Thatcher years, there was a perception that the Church's viewpoint and the Conservative viewpoint were very different - that the Church was primarily concerned with community and the Conservative Party primarily with the individual," he says. "I think this was a simplistic and caricatured reading but nonetheless that was the perception."

All politicians dream of ending poverty, but the idea of social justice to achieve this has been the driving force behind centre-Left politics for more than a century. Ever since the ideas in William Beveridge's report on welfare state cradle-to-grave policies were implemented by the Labour Government of Clement Attlee, culminating in the setting up of the National Health Service in 1948, Labour has been more closely identified as the party committed to balancing the social scale.

Conservatives are determined that concern for the poor should not be regarded as the preserve of their opponents. It plans to do this with a fresh initiative, spearheaded by the party's foremost activist in matters of social policy, Iain Duncan Smith. In 2004 Mr Duncan Smith, who is a Catholic, took charge of the new Social Justice Centre, an independent think tank that focuses on new ways to winch the most deprived in Britain out of poverty. The centre was established by David Cameron to support the work of welfare charities, carry out research and monitor poverty in Britain "to define the role the state and other players can and cannot play in its reduction".

Last year Mr Duncan Smith published a high-profile report that sought radical ways to boost marriage as a means of combating social breakdown. In the report he called for "the biggest shake-up of the welfare system" since the 1940s, proposing tax breaks for married couples and vastly increased child-benefit payments among a range of policies.

Alun Michael is doubtful of the authenticity of this. "Conservatives instinctively distrust ‘the state' even though it can be a force for good in society," he says.

Nonetheless, the next general election is likely to be two years away and the Conservatives now have an opportunity to build on this work from a position of advantage. It will need to employ all its powers of persuasion to prove to the Church that it means business on matters of social justice.