Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/news/?id=24
On Tuesday the 31st January the government’s version of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill was defeated, despite the government’s majority of 67MPs and the immense pressure exerted by the government to get people to vote for the Bill. It is only the second time in 9 years that Labour have lost a vote in the Commons. It was a vote which even the opposition MPs said could not be won. It is a vote which Christians knew, faithfully trusting in God’s sovereignty, could always be won.
It was on Tuesday at 7:45pm that the House of Commons voted against the government’s version of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. There were two votes held: in the first vote, the question was whether the RACIAL hatred laws would be changed, and the government was defeated by 10 votes. On the issue of the RELIGIOUS hatred laws, the government was defeated BY JUST ONE VOTE. Tony Blair voted in the first vote, but left before the second vote. That means it was the failure of the Prime Minister to vote which in human terms meant victory for those opposing the government’s Religious Hatred Bill.
The BBC news website described it as a ‘surprise defeat’, the London Metro and The Daily Mail described it as a ‘Shock defeat’, and in the Guardian, Labour minister Mr. Hain ‘admitted the government had been taken by surprise by the defeat.’
The upshot of the vote was that the Religious Hatred Bill was passed, but it was the House of Lords’ version of the Bill, not the Government’s version, that will become law. The Lords’ version was a dramatic improvement in the protection of the uninhibited freedom for Christians to preach the Gospel.
The Bill which will now become law will only allow someone to be prosecuted if:
It is now hard to envisage a case where a Christian, preaching from the word of God in good faith and from good motives, would fall foul of this legislation.
LCF commented: "... it is our view as lawyers, that the Bill that has been passed has so many safeguards and protections built in, that it will represent almost no threat to Christians preaching the word of God. We would still prefer that the law was removed from the statute books, but the victory last night in the Commons was real, and allays almost all the fears which we have talked about over the past months."
Below is set out the list of Labour MPs who resisted the enormous pressure put on them by the government, and voted against their own party’s version of the Bill. The list can also be found at news.bbc.co.uk
Equally, the BBC webpage given above contains a list of ALL the MPs who voted to oppose the government’s version of the Bill, so please, check how your local MP voted and write to thank them if they opposed the government’s version. It seems likely that every single Liberal Democrat and Conservative MP voted against the government’s version. Those two parties went to great lengths to ensure the MPs were there to oppose the government, and whatever motivated them to do that, we should thank them because, (again in human terms) if they had not been so staunch, the government would have won. Additionally, it was absolutely crucial to the victory that the SNP and (I believe) Plaid Cymru decided to vote against the Bill. Please thank those MPs as well.
Here is the list of the 21 Labour MPs who voted against their government in the second vote.
Steven Fouch (CMF Head of Communications) 020 7234 9668
Alistair Thompson on 07970 162 225
Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) was founded in 1949 and is an interdenominational organisation with over 5,000 doctors, 900medical and nursing students and 300 nurses and midwives as members in all branches of medicine, nursing and midwifery. A registered charity, it is linked to over 100 similar bodies in other countries throughout the world.
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