What can we say but praise God!! It was by his glory and grace that months of prayer and petition were answered! The government’s version of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill was defeated, despite the government’s majority of 67 MPs and the immense pressure exerted by the government to get people to vote for the Bill.
It is only the second time in nine years that Labour has lost a vote in the Commons. It was a vote which even the opposition MPs said could not be won. It is a vote which Christians knew, faithfully trusting in God’s sovereignty, could always be won.
It was on Tuesday January 31, at 7.45 pm, that the House of Commons voted against the government’s version of the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. There were two votes held: in the first vote, the question was whether the racial hatred laws would be changed, and the government was defeated by ten votes. On the issue of the religious hatred laws, the government was defeated by just one vote. Tony Blair voted in the first vote, but left before the second. That means it was the failure of the Prime Minister to vote which in human terms meant victory for those opposing the government’s Religious Hatred Bill.
