from The Christian Institute
Andy Burnham has just been announced as the new Labour Party leader, and is set to become Prime Minister on Monday.
It’s important to know who our leader is and what his values are if we are to glean any idea of how the country may be run, and what his premiership might mean for the work of The Christian Institute.
Using our MPs’ votes resource, we have examined how the former Mayor of Greater Manchester voted on moral issues we campaign on during his previous stint as an MP of Leigh between 2001 and 2017.
Christian freedoms
Mr Burnham has voted against expanding Sunday trading hours in England and Wales, protecting those who want to keep the Lord’s Day holy.
However, he voted to narrow employment freedoms of churches and religious organisations in the Equality Bill and to scrap the presumption that religious charities provide public benefit.
He also voted in favour of the Religious Hatred Bill, which could have criminalised reasonable criticism of religious or atheistic beliefs and voted against including protection for churches and religious organisations in the Gender Recognition Bill.
Unborn rights
Burnham has consistently voted to undermine protections for the unborn by not opposing an explicit ban on sex-selective abortion and voting against providing information and offering counselling to women considering abortion for foetal abnormality in 2008.
He also voted against reducing the abortion limit from 24 weeks in 2008.
However, he did vote to keep the requirement to consider a child’s need for a father before fertility treatment.