Tony Blair finally decides to ‘do’ God

Tony Blair is to appear on a BBC religious programme, Christmas Voices, on Sunday to express his regrets about not speaking more about his faith while he was Prime Minister. "I think it is sad in the way that people feel you can't talk about something that is obviously important to who you are," he says in the interview with the show's presenter, Martin Popplewell.

The former PM goes on: "Maybe I became too sensitive to that or too cautious about it, but I just came to the conclusion that [if] I started talking about religion...it was going to be difficult."

Blair says that he feels the British public are actually more sympathetic to religion than Alastair Campbell, who famously said that they "didn't do God" while Blair was at Downing Street, imagined. "I always used to feel that people, in one sense, are a little comforted if they think the person leading them has some sense of spiritual values. Although I don't think they'd ever support the American type of system, we could have been a little more adventurous on this without bringing the house down.

"In America, people are just more open about their religious faith. Barack Obama in the election would talk about his faith and his Christian belief and people would think that's right and proper."

Of his decision to move from the Church of England to Catholicism when he stopped being Prime Minister in 2007, Blair says: "I hope we're not in a situation where you couldn't have a Roman Catholic as a prime minister. I don't think it makes any difference to people at all, politically."