David Cameron’s resignation speech on Friday marked a sudden end to his 11 years as leader of the Conservative party. Remain supporters heaped blame on him for his miscalculations over the referendum result. “He leaves office in ignominy,” the Economist concluded. Cameron will surely be hoping that history’s assessment is kinder to him.
From a Catholic point of view, Cameron’s legacy is mixed. Some Catholics will have flinched when he lauded the introduction of same-sex marriage during his historic departure speech and later said that redefining marriage was one of his proudest achievements while in office. The economic policies introduced by his Government were heavily criticised by agencies such as CSAN and Cardinal Vincent Nichols said welfare had become increasingly “punitive” under Cameron’s Government during an interview with The Daily Telegraph back in 2014.
Nevertheless, the Prime Minister was sympathetic to the Church on some moral issues. He once voted to reduce the abortion limit from 24 to 22 weeks and he was sceptical of the drive towards “assisted dying” throughout his tenure.
Following Cameron’s resignation, the next Prime Minister might be another Old Etonian, Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, better known as Boris Johnson.
Born in New York to English parents, the 52-year-old has had a wealthy and privileged upbringing with a first-class education not only at Eton, but also at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was president of the Oxford Union.
Boris’s political genius has been his ability to defuse any resentment his background might antagonise, through buffoonery and self-deprecation. According to the Independent, Johnson once said: “My chances of being PM are about as good as the chances of finding Elvis on Mars, or my being reincarnated as an olive.”
Some Catholics will merely regard Boris as the fluffy and innocuous former London mayor who introduced nippy Boris Bikes and was once stuck in mid-air when a zip wire stunt went embarrassingly wrong. But would he be a popular Prime Minister with Catholics who want somebody supportive of their values?
It is not widely known but Johnson is a baptised Catholic, his former Spectator colleague Stuart Reid informs me: “He was a good boss and once gave me an old Burns & Oates pilgrim’s guide to Rome. On the inside cover he wrote: ‘To Stu. Sanctificetur nomen tuum!’”
When asked if Boris would be good for Catholics, Reid replied: “I do not think he will be any worse than Cameron, who, you will remember, introduced gay marriage precisely because, as he said, he was a conservative and therefore in favour of marriage. I think it possible that Boris has struggled with religion more than Cameron has, but I could be wrong. Boris is not pro-life, of course, but he has a tender heart.”
As Reid suggests, Boris’s pro-life credentials are weak. In July 2014, Johnson said that the time had come to allow assisted suicide ahead of the debate on Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill, which will alienate many pro-life voters. Meanwhile, he has achieved some notoriety in the press for extramarital affairs. But during an interview with the Telegraph, Johnson insisted that his private life had no bearing on his ability to do his job.
Furthermore, in a frank admission in 2015, Johnson said at a Magic FM radio reception that it would be “pretentious” to suggest he was a “serious practising Christian” but he “thinks about religion a lot”.
If not Boris, then who?
The other serious contender is Home Secretary, Theresa May, who was described during an interview with Telegraph journalist, Alison Pearson in 2012 as a “strong Christian”. In 2015, May voted in favour of banning sex-selective abortion but she has fluctuated on gay rights issues, becoming increasingly liberal on the subject as she climbed the party ranks.
But if Brexit has taught us anything, we know that Catholics are diverse group who can bitterly disagree on big political questions. Boris’s vocal support for Brexit will be the decisive factor for many Catholics even before his other political views are digested.
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