An evangelical Christian charity that campaigns against abortion and same-sex marriage rights – and which once sponsored a conference promoting the idea gay people can be “cured” of their homosexuality – has provided interns for five MPs and three MSPs in the last two years, BuzzFeed News can reveal.
Conservatives Jeremy Lefroy, David Burrowes, Gary Streeter, and John Glen, along with Labour’s Barry Sheerman, have all accepted interns from Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) in the last year. According to the Register for Members’ interests, they took on interns from September or October 2014 through to July 2015.
The amount the interns were paid by the charity varied but averaged around £650 a month, with some MPs topping up their wages out of their staffing allowances.
In Holyrood, three MSPs – Labour’s Rhoda Grant and David Stewart, and the Liberal Democrats’ Willie Rennie – have accepted interns under CARE’s Leadership Programme in the last two years.
Grant took on an intern from October 2014 to May 2015, working four days a week. She estimated that the value of the support provided to her amounted to £5,200. Stewart took on an intern between October 2013 and July 2014, while Rennie took one from September 2011 to July 2012.
A spokesperson for Rennie said: “The individual involved produced excellent work which promoted the Liberal Democrats, not themselves or their sponsoring organisation.” None of the other politicians contacted by BuzzFeed News responded to requests for comment.
There has been no obvious link between CARE and the “gay cure” movement in recent years, but one of the charity’s trustees, the Reverend Paul Perkin, also sits on the board of Anglican Mainstream, which earlier this year organised a “gay cure” conference in Westminster. The charity refused to comment to BuzzFeed News about its current position on homosexuality as a condition.
CARE continues to campaign against same-sex rights, stating on its website that it supports marriage as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. “We hold Government to account for the assurances they made about protections for people who cannot endorse the new definition of marriage,” it adds. In 2000 it was accused by the Labour MP Ben Bradshaw of being “a bunch of homophobic bigots”, because it would not provide an intern to him due to his homosexuality.
In a statement, a spokesman for CARE told BuzzFeed News: “All parliamentary placements are made under the IPSA Volunteer Intern scheme and are cross party. CARE seeks prospective placements in the best interests of interns without discrimination and irrespective of the policy or theological views of parliamentarians.”
He said: “Some interns may take placements with NGOs and charities to gain valuable work experience.
“This scheme is an effective outworking of CARE’s Charitable Objects because many of those who have benefited from the training programme go into areas where they make a significant public benefit contribution to society in the UK and around the world."
Alongside the International Justice Mission, a large US charity, and Evangelical Alliance Scotland, CARE has also called for the criminalisation of sex work in Scotland, arguing that it is an “effective” way to tackle human trafficking. The policy was supported by Rhoda Grant, one of the beneficiaries of its intern scheme. The charity also campaigns against abortion and stem cell research.
In 2008 The Telegraph claimed CARE had “borrowed the tactics of America's religious Right in its attempts to affect policy”. Four years later a political scandal erupted after The Guardian revealed that 20 MPs had accepted interns from it despite the fact it had sponsored a London conference about homosexuality and Christianity that included sessions on "mentoring the sexually broken".
When the arrangement was revealed, some MPs cut their ties with the charity, including Labour’s Liz Kendall. The current leader of the Liberal Democrats, Tim Farron, said he would not take another CARE intern, stating: “I don't agree with the idea of a gay 'cure' and I think it is grossly offensive, homophobic and wrong. It shows the church in such an awful light."
John Glen, who was previously a CARE intern himself, defended his use of the charity’s interns, telling the BBC that the views expressed at the conference were not advocated by the charity.