As the race to replace Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservative party and Prime Minister begins, Catholics have taken prominent positions in the process, both as candidates and as would-be kingmakers.
Tom Tugendhat, MP for Tonbridge and Malling, who has promised a “clean break” from the Johnson ministry and is considered a leading moderate candidate in the eight-person-strong contest, is a practising Catholic.
A public advocate for Christianity who quoted Thomas More in his maiden speech, Tugendhat, who studied theology for his undergraduate degree at Bristol University, has promised a “military-style” crackdown on crime, tax cuts, and a renewed focus on national security.
Other leadership contenders with Catholic connections include former Faith minister Kemi Badenoch MP, married to a practising Catholic and a self-described “honorary Catholic”.
Jeremy Hunt MP, the former Foreign Secretary, a practising Anglican, and Steve Baker MP, who has previously attended pentecostal and evangelical Churches, have previously been public about their Christian faith. Baker dropped out of the contest after failing a preliminary ballot on Tuesday 12 July.
Penny Mordaunt MP, considered the most socially liberal of the candidates in the race, attended a Catholic secondary school and made headlines in 2018 when she asked the Vatican to change Church teaching on contraception.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has recommended candidates turn to Catholic social teaching as “a really good basis” for discussions about shared values and standards in public life. Boris Johnson's lack of “a clear moral compass”, said the bishop, seems to have “completely undermined his authority” and made his resignation “inevitable”.
Right to Life, the pro-life campaign group, has issued a votes tracker for the contest charting how candidates have voted on life issues in the past. Although some contenders, like Jeremy Hunt, have reputations as pro-life legislators, just two, Steve Baker and Rehman Chisti voted against the introduction of abortion to Northern Ireland when a vote was held in 2018.
Chisti, believed to be the first son of an imam to enter parliament, is a practising Muslim and a campaigner on religious freedom, serving as the PM’s Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2019 and 2020. He also dropped out of the contest on 12 July.
Johnson, brought up Catholic, converted to Anglicanism at school and has refused to comment on whether he presently considers himself a practising Catholic. His wife, Carrie Johnson, née Symonds, declared herself as such in 2016. The two were married in May 2021 in a Catholic ceremony at Westminster Cathedral.
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