New Lib Dem leader has Catholic family

In brief interviews on the BBC yesterday, the newly-elected leader of the Lib Dem party, Nick Clegg, said that he did not have any particular religious beliefs but had "enormous respect" for people with a faith. He added: "I'm married to a Catholic and am committed to bringing my children up as Catholics. I myself am not an active believer. But the last thing I would do when talking or thinking about religion is approach it with a closed heart or a closed mind." Commenting later, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said: "It matters less to me than to know they are honest and reliable and that what beliefs they have they hold sincerely. "This isn't a country where Christianity is imposed by law. It's a country with a nominally Christian majority. And that's good. And whoever becomes prime minister has to understand that and work with it rather than against the grain of it." Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the son of a church minister, is also a Christian who has spoken of his father's advice acting as his "moral compass".