An ‘elder statesman’ of the British Labour party, Lord Donoghue, who served under Harold Wilson, James Callaghan and Tony Blair, predicted that Roman Catholics in particular would turn their backs on the “politically 
correct zealots” in the party at the general election.
He reserved particular venom for Labour’s “disgraceful” policy which obliges religious adoption agencies to consider same-sex couples as parents, citing it as an example of its hostility to traditional beliefs. Several Catholic agencies have had to close as a result.
It is being seen as an embarrassing blow for Gordon Brown, who just last week described churchgoers as “the conscience of our country” in his Easter message in an attempt to curry favour with religious voters.
A policy adviser to two Labour prime ministers in the 1970s, Lord Donoghue was given a peerage and later became a junior agriculture minister following the New Labour landslide of 1997. He is now chairman of Starting Price Regulatory Board, the horse-racing watchdog.
In a letter published in The Tablet, a weekly Catholic magazine, he writes that he has little to add to earlier condemnation of “the Labour Government’s disgraceful attack on Catholic adoption societies”.
But he goes on:” The present situation sadly reflects the extent to which many among the politically correct zealots in all parties now display the same kind of intolerant bigotry towards Christian faith which once was regrettably shown towards the homosexual minority.
“Like Shirley Williams, in the 1960s I strongly supported Harold Wilson’s Government in reforming the barbaric laws then prevailing against homosexuals. It is sad to see so many of their supporters now operating with similar intolerance.
“As a life-long member of the Labour party, I am ashamed of its present actions. The Government should not be surprised if large numbers of Catholics, a significant number of whom traditionally supported our party, decide to withhold their support in the coming election.”