Christians cast Farage as Herod and Clegg as Judas

Date added: 09/08/18

With just a few days to go until polling day, a survey carried out by Christian Research for Bible Society has revealed the biblical characters that Christian voters associate most closely with aspiring political leaders. The poll of 1,179 Christians across England, Wales and Scotland asked them to compare political party leaders with a choice of over 50 well known characters in the Bible. 

Some 26% of those polled saw UKIP leader Nigel Farage as being like Herod, the ruler who, in the Gospel of Mark, has all the children under the age of 2 living in Bethlehem killed in a bid to find and kill the infant Jesus and nd 17% compared Nick Clegg to Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus. 

Eight per cent referred to Ed Miliband as Jacob, the Old Testament figure who usurped his brother Esau's birthright. 

Meanwhile, David Cameron was cast as the troubled king Saul (by 11%), who was eventually succeeded by a young and popular activist after a period of infighting and betrayal.

But some of the female party leaders were seen in a more positive light. More than 1 in 5 of those asked (22%) compared SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon with Deborah, an Old Testament prophet who led her people against another nation. 

Leanne Wood, the Plaid Cymru leader, was portrayed as Queen Esther, a woman who rose to political power in a foreign land, but who used diplomacy to sue for freedom for her people. 

And Green leader Natalie Bennett was seen as the original earth mother, Eve (16%).