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The details

On 18^th July 1988 the House of Commons debated and voted on amendments to the Education Reform Bill passed by the House of Lords.¹

The amendments covered the arrangements for religious education and collective worship in County schools. Church schools were not affected.

The Commons voted to accept the package of amendments requiring:

1. all new agreed syllabuses for religious education to: “reflect the fact that the religious traditions in Great Britain are in the main Christian whilst taking account of the teaching and practices of the other principal religions represented in Great Britain.”²
2. that the daily act of collective worship in County schools be “wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character”.³
3. important changes in procedure for the drawing up of new syllabuses and the establishment of standing advisory councils on religious education (SACREs) to advise local education authorities on RE and worship.⁴

The parental right of withdrawal for all pupils from RE and worship was unaffected, but for the first time provision was made for SACREs to allow pupils from a non-Christian faith to take part in worship according to their own faith.

Before the main vote was taken, Jack Straw, the then Labour Education spokesman, tabled an amendment that would have allowed some LEAs an exemption from the “in the main Christian” requirement for RE at the discretion of the Secretary of State for Education.⁵ His attempt was heavily defeated by 364 to 140 votes.

After this the Commons proceeded to vote on the whole package of amendments. These were accepted by 374 to 110.

How we recorded the vote:

• Voted for ‘mainly Christian’ Religious Education throughout England and Wales in 1988

  1. All MPs who voted against the Straw amendment and for the Lords’ amendments.
  2. Those who initially supported the Straw amendment but, when that fell, supported the Lords’ amendments:
     Jim Cousins (Newcastle upon Tyne Central), Paul Flynn (Newport West), Win Griffiths (Bridgend), Martyn D. Jones (Clwyd South West), Thomas McAvoy (Glasgow Rutherglen), and Alan Meale (Mansfield).
  3. Those who voted against Straw but who abstained or were absent on the Lords’ amendments:
     John Stanley (Tonbridge and Malling), Sir Peter Tapsell (Lindsey East) and John Wilkinson (Ruislip Northwood)
  4. Those who were absent or abstained on Straw but then who voted for the Lords’ amendments:
     John Reid (Motherwell North)

• Voted against ‘mainly Christian’ Religious Education throughout England and Wales in 1988

  1. All MPs who voted for the Straw amendment and against the Lords’ amendments.
  2. Those who supported the Straw amendment, but when that fell, were absent or abstained on the vote for the Lords’ amendments:
     Tony Blair (Sedgefield), Nicholas Brown (Newcastle upon Tyne East), Alistair Darling (Edinburgh Central), Alun Michael (Cardiff South and Penarth), Austin Mitchell (Great Grimsby), Ernie Ross (Dundee West), Keith Vaz (Leicester East) and Brian Wilson (Cunninghame North).
  3. Those who abstained or were absent on the Straw amendment, but then voted against the Lords’ amendments:
     John Prescott (Hull East)

• Abstained or was absent on the vote for ‘mainly Christian’ Religious Education throughout England and Wales in 1988

  MPs who did not vote on either the Straw amendment or the Lords amendments.

• ¹House of Commons, Hansard, 18 July 1988, cols. 815- 848
• ²The Education Reform Act 1988, section 8(3)
• ³The Education Reform Act 1988, section 7(1)
• ⁴The Education Reform Act 1988, section 11
• ⁵House of Commons, Hansard, 18 July 1988, cols. 815 and 816