The leading candidate to become head of the UK Labour Party has spoken positively of her Catholic faith.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey who has been chosen by the Labour grassroots group Momentum as “the only viable candidate” to continue Mr Corbyn’s “socialist agenda”, said before the last election that the teachings of her Catholic faith drives her work and the policies she helps create.

In a questionnaire to Salford Catholic Diocese, she said: “[M]y Catholic faith has taught me that the only society we should be striving for is one based on love. . . The teachings I have based my life around drive the work I do every day and the policies I help to create as a politician”.

She added that in difficult times, “my faith is often the only thing that keeps me going. In those quiet moments before sleep every night, I always I pray for help and strength in doing the right thing, making the right decisions and making my time worthy of helping those around me as I truly want to.”

Some media have focussed on comments where she said she would limit the law that allows abortion on disability grounds up to birth:

“It is currently legal to terminate a pregnancy up to full-term on the grounds of disability while the upper limit is 24 weeks if there is no disability. I personally do not agree with this position and agree with the words of the Disability Rights Commission that “the context in which parents choose whether to have a child should be one in which disability and non-disability are valued equally”.

On the issue of legalisation on assisted suicide, she said she was against it. “Aside from the moral and ethical red lines, I had serious concerns that those who looked at assisted suicide may simply feel compelled to end their own life for reasons beyond it truly being their time to go.”