Apologetics & vote details

If you want to know why we believe certain votes are morally right or wrong click on an ‘Apologetic’ link below. If you want to know more information about the votes or how particular votes were recorded, click on a ‘Vote details’ link below.

Sanctity of Life

Marriage and the Family

Christian Freedoms and Heritage

Other

More information

Most of the votes involved a free vote. It is a matter of concern that some political parties have used the party whip to require MPs to vote for policies which many Christians would see as morally wrong (e.g. the repeal of Section 28, or the introduction of homosexual civil partnerships).

Some votes have had to be excluded. For example, the votes on Sunday trading have proved too complex to analyse in the time available.

The vote on the introduction of the national lottery was also excluded as none of the main political parties opposes the principle of the national lottery. The main vote in Parliament on the legislation bringing in the lottery was not actually on the principle, but rather the particular scheme for implementation. An analysis of MPs votes would yield very little information about their beliefs on this question and hence has not been done.

Where votes in the House of Commons are referred to, the vote totals are always two higher on both sides than the totals given in Hansard (the official record of House of Commons proceedings). This is because there are two tellers (MPs who count the vote) on both sides.

By convention, tellers support the vote they count. The exception is where a technical motion has been used in order to force a vote. So far as we are aware, in the issues considered here this only applies to the votes on religious broadcasting and on banning sex-selective abortion.