Eight MPs are launching a Catholics for Labour group at the party’s conference in Brighton this Sunday.
The group, which says it will focus on social justice and be guided by Catholic social teaching, will be led by Mike Kane, the MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East. He told the BBC that there were 3.8 million Catholic voters in England and Wales and that “Labour will ignore them at its peril”.
“I’ve always seen my politics as inextricably tied to my faith and I truly believe there is a natural connection between Catholicism and the Labour movement,” he said. “My desire to help those who have fallen on hard times all stems from my Catholic upbringing.”
The group will be formally launched with a Mass at St Mary Magdalen Church on Sunday. Alongside Mr Kane, the founding MPs are Keith Vaz, David Crausby, Jon Cruddas, Stephen Pound, Emma Lewell-Buck, Conor McGinn and Andy McDonald.
A spokesman said the group is aimed at those interested in applying Catholic social teaching to public policy, as well as Catholics interested in entering politics in the future.
The founders say in a letter that they have “lofty ambitions”. “We are not about standing still or merely making observations of the world around us,” they said.
“Our hearts and minds are firmly focused on social justice and, guided by the teaching of the Catholic faith, we will work together to actively shape that world and prepare members for a life in public service.”
The group’s launch will be seen as an attempt to win back working-class Catholic voters who have drifted from the party in recent years.
Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘saddened’ by cheap morning-after pills
Jacob Rees-Mogg has expressed dismay at the decision by the Chemist 4 U retailer to sell packs of the morning-after pill for £4.99 – a third of the usual price.
Asked about the news on LBC, he said: “That’s a great sadness.” Prompted to explain further, he said: “Because life begins at conception.”
The morning-after pill is widely described as contraception but some Catholic bioethicists have warned that it may have an abortifacient effect.
In July the pharmacist Boots refused to lower prices on the pill in case it “incentivised inappropriate use”, but it backtracked after Labour MPs threatened a boycott.
Josephine Quintavalle, from Comment on Reproductive Ethics, criticised the sale of the pills at “pocket money prices”, saying it would mislead women into thinking they were “routine contraception”.
Dr Anthony McCarthy, of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), said the cut-price pill posed a risk to women’s health.
“With morning-after pill use, abortion rates do not go down overall but STDs increase due to more sexual risk-taking,” he said.
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