Two graphs that show how much religious interference we want in politics

The majority of Labour and Lib Dem supporters were in favour of public comments from religious leaders

A survey has shown that more of the public want the influence of religious leaders than those who don’t.

44 per cent of the public believed that religious leaders should intervene and make public comments on political and economic matters, compared to 39 per cent who didn’t.

However, despite more of the public wanting influence than not, 75 per cent admitted that they had never been influenced by a religious leader and 57 per cent said they took no notice of what they said.

The political leanings of those surveyed by YouGov also affected their attitudes on whether religious leaders should comment on such issues.

The majority of Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters believed that they should, whereas the majority of Ukip and Conservative supporters believed they should not.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was determined to have made “the best contribution to moral and religious life in Britain”, over his predecessor Rowan Williams and both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI.