Faith the issue as Blair courts Christians

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Guardian
Matthew Tempest, political correspondent
Monday March 14, 2005

Tony Blair is to woo evangelical Christians ahead of the general election as rival faith groups play an increasingly significant part in campaigning strategy.

The prime minister will address 200 members of the Christian Faithworks group next week in a lecture on how the church can create "a more trusting society".

The move towards targeting individual faiths as part of the run-up to the likely May polling day comes after Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, made abortion an election issue for the first time in British politics at the weekend, when he stated that he favoured reducing the time limit for terminations to 20 weeks.

The prime minister will give a lunchtime address next Tuesday to the London-based charitable group, which is largely comprised of evangelical Christians.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,2763,1437263,00.html