Ed Miliband and David Cameron have been getting their dose of gospel music, as they tour the UK’s popular black churches in another bid to get the black vote.
Last week Prime Minister David Cameron, who described his faith as “a bit like the reception for Magic FM in the Chilterns: it sort of comes and goes”), made an appearance at Festival of Life, a Christian festival which draws around 45,000 visitors.
In his speech Cameron praised the congregation, comparing them to the water Jesus turned into wine.
“Like Jesus turning water into wine, you turn loneliness into companionship,” he told them. “You turn deprivation into comfort. You turn lost lives into lives with purpose.
“Just think how great our country Britain could be if we built on that. If we have an even bigger Big Society where even more people shared your family values: values of prudence, of hard work, of looking out for those who fall on hard times. With those values we can achieve the Britain we all want to live in.”
After his speech, Cameron was prayed for by the founder of the festival Pastor Enoch A. Adeboye, who asked the crowd to stretch their arms towards Cameron and prayed that he would be given “the wisdom of Solomon and the courage of David.”
Meanwhile, last Sunday, Labour leader Ed Miliband headed to Praise House, a Pentecostal Church in Croydon, which he previously visited after the riots back in 2011.
During his visit Miliband spoke of a promise to help create a more inclusive and equal society which he described as a “big issue in our country”.
“What strikes me is that we have equality before the law in our country, but we don’t yet have real equality,” he said. “The battle for me, for equality, is not yet won.”
He also stated that he is committed to alleviating unemployment, particularly black youth, and Labour has promised that any young person out of work for over a year, will be ‘guaranteed a job’.
While parties continue to target the ethnic minority vote that could turn the election, recent figures have shown that black brits are disengaged with politics and as many as 20% have not even registered to vote.
Operation Black Vote has been campaigning to amend this issues saying that if black people don’t vote they are “taking the black out of Britain”.
