Tony Blair has admitted his belief in God played a “hugely important”
role during his decade as Britain’s prime minister, in a BBC television
interview to be broadcast Sunday. Blair, who stepped down as
Britain’s leader in June and is now a Middle East peace envoy, said he
did not speak about his
religious beliefs during his time in office for
fear of being viewed as a “nutter” by the public. “If I am honest about
it, yes of course it was hugely important,” he said about his belief in
God for a documentary entitled “The Blair Years”.
“You know you can’t have a religious faith and it be an insignificant
aspect because it’s, it’s profound about you and about you as a human
being,” said Blair, who as prime minister took Britain to war in Iraq
and helped bring peace to Northern Ireland.
“As I always say there is no point in me denying it, I happen to have
religious conviction, I don’t actually think there is anything wrong in
having religious conviction - on the contrary I think it is a strength
for people.” Media reports claim that Blair, a Protestant, is planning
to convert to Roman Catholicism, the religion of his wife Cherie.
Speaking to the BBC, former Labour Party leader Blair said Britain’s
political system made it difficult for politicians to talk publicly
about religious faith.
“I mean if you are in the American political system or others then you
can talk about religious faith and people say yes that’s fair enough
and it is something they respond to quite naturally,” he said.
“You talk about it in our system and frankly people do think you’re a
nutter. I mean... you maybe go off and sit in the corner and you know
commune with, with the
man upstairs and then come back and say right
I’ve been told the answer and that’s it.”
European Union trade commissioner Peter Mandelson, a cabinet minister
under Blair, said religion was “very, very important” to his former
boss.
“This is a man who
takes a Bible with him wherever he
goes and last
thing at
night he will
read from the Bible,” Mandelson told the BBC
programme.
Blair’s former spin doctor Alastair Campbell meanwhile confirmed that he had advised Blair not to speak about God in public.
“I just always worry in Britain the public are a bit wary of politicians who go on about God,” Campbell told the BBC.
“I said (to Blair) my worry is that the (opposition) Tories will pick
this up and say, this is you saying, to be a Christian you’ve gotta be
Labour. And that’s just a bad political position to be in,” Campbell
added.
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