This article is an extended version of one that appeared in the January issue of Total Politics. To read other interviews from the 25 club feature, click here

You’re involved in the Conservative Christian Fellowship. What role do you think religion has to play in politics? I think that the Cameron vision of the big society, referring to Cornerstone again, is actually very heavily Cornerstone agenda and it gives a lot more scope to faith groups, because the idea that you make more use of the church and volunteer organisations is one that the Cornerstone would see as a fundamental Conservative value, the value of non-state institutions delivering these kind of services which we’ve got very used to with our increasingly socialist system being delivered by government. Church schools have for a very long time on the whole produced better academic results as well as better outputs in other ways on average than the three-quarters run by the state. Although the state funds them, they are generally more successful academically and in other measures too, such as producing less children who are delinquents, even in areas with very high levels of free school meals. I think there is a larger role in the Cameron vision for the big society for churches than there has been for a very long time.

You’ve spoken on several occasions about the need for a mother and a father for a child. What was your response to David Cameron’s announcement that he would like to legalise gay marriage?
I’m opposed to it for two reasons. The first is that as a practising Christian, I do think marriage should be between a man and a woman. As a practical consideration I simply can’t see how, in a diverse society, if you say we are going to move away from the view that this is a country where the Church of England is established and marriage is based on that, if you want to move away from that I can’t see how, in practical terms, you can then refuse Sharia marriage. There are more Islamic people than there are gay people in Britain, and there are very, very serious problems indeed that would be thrown up with starting to allow the Sharia system to become part of our legal system, you would bring all sorts of consequences with it.

Where would you like to see the Conservative Party head in the future?
We need to do what Conservatives have always done which is to try to address the concerns of ordinary people, ordinary families in a way which is coherent with our traditional institutions. So in coping with what is the worst crisis since the Second World War, economically, and may also be quite a serious international crisis, we hold fast to the traditional principles that have served the country and the party very well, a belief in sound money and fiscal prudence, a belief in the primacy of the defence of the realm, a belief in basic justice rather than theoretical concepts of human rights, and so on.

As someone with quite traditional views do you feel comfortable with the way that David Cameron has modernised Conservative Party?
Yes, I do. I was one of the three-man panel which did a review of the reserve forces and this is absolutely fundamental to the link between the greater armed forces and great institutions in the wider society and I’m doing some follow up in a number of areas. And I see the commitment to the military covenant and the absolute belief that we shouldn’t allow our armed forces to disappear into cultural isolation which they’re very close to doing. It’s fundamental, and it’s David Cameron’s personal intervention that’s actually stopped that happening.

Tags: Conservative Party, David Cameron, Gay Marriage, Issue 43, Julian Brazier, The 25 Club