Philippa Stroud

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Philippa Stroud was appointed special adviser to Iain Duncan Smith in May 2010 at the Department for Work and Pensions.

Background

This article is part of the Revolving Door project of Spinwatch.

Born in Devon in 1965, Stroud was raised in Surrey. She graduated from Birmingham University with a degree in French before spending a gap year working with recovering drug addicts in Hong Kong, where she met her husband David Stroud. Stroud's biography at the Centre for Social Justice (now removed from their website but available in the Internet Archive) states that: 'Philippa Stroud has spent the last seventeen years in poverty-fighting projects and is author of a book on social injustice.'

It notes that Stroud undertook the following roles:

• 'In 1987-89 Philippa worked in Hong Kong and Macau amongst the addict community.'
• 'From 1989-96 Philippa pioneered a four-stage residential support project enabling homeless people to move off the streets and to become contributing members of the community.' This appears to have been the Bedford based King's Arms Project. In her ghost written memoir it is noted that King's Arms 'is a Christian church in association with New Frontiers International and a member of the Evangelical Alliance'
• 'From 2001-2003 Philippa has been developing the Bridge Project in Birmingham to care for the homeless, addicts and those in debt situations.'

Centre for Social Justice

Philippa Stroud on Newsnight as Executive director of the Centre for Social Justice

In 2004, Stroud co-founded the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) with Duncan Smith. The CSJ was incorporated with Companies House on the 25th May 2004 (Company No. 05137036).

Christian Action Research and Education

Philippa Stroud listed as 'head' of the CAREconfidential helpline in 2005

Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) is an evangelical organisation which promotes a homophobic and anti-abortionist conservative agenda. In 2005, Stroud was listed as Head of the CAREconfidential helpline, responsible for "Pregnancy crisis, post-abortion counselling". She has also previously worked as a Visiting Lecturer for CARE.

Conservative Activist and candidate

Stroud stood as a Conservative Party Parliamentary candidate for Birmingham Ladywood in 2005 and for Sutton and Cheam in 2010, but lost in both elections. She was expected to win the Sutton and Cheam seat from Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow, but Burstow held on to win with a majority of 1,608 votes (despite a 1.5% swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Tories). For her campaign in Sutton and Cheam, Stroud received a donation of £2,000 from the multi-millionaire self-labelled member of the "God squad" Michael Farmer.

Stroud's decision to join the Conservatives was due to her "conviction that the values of personal responsibility and compassion sit best within the Conservative tradition". In an interview in 2009, she was asked about the importance of Christians being involved in politics. Stroud responded:

It is massively important because we have a unique understanding of the value of human beings and we know just how important every single person, regardless of background or of what they can contribute to society. We, possibly more than anybody else, have a responsibility to speak up for the vulnerable. It is an idea that is often referred to in politics but not often understood. Christians, I believe, uniquely carry that vision and that is why we must be involved.

Religious beliefs

"Joyful female submission"

Philippa Stroud is married to David Stroud, a leader in the Newfrontiers Church. He is a signatory to the Westminster Declaration, a statement backed by "socially conservative" Christians which has been criticised by other Christian organisations, such as the think-tank Ekklesia, the Christian Socialist Movement, the Conservative Christian Fellowship and the Liberal Democrat Christian Forum. The Declaration promotes "a particular interpretation of marriage", while also addressing issues such as abortion, euthanasia and the freedoms of Christians.

Philippa Stroud also attends the Newfrontiers Church. Number 7 of the Church's Vision and Values affirms that:

A Church where Biblical family life is highly valued, where husband and wife embrace male servant leadership and joyful female submission, where godly parenting is taught and practised, and where the special value of singleness and its unique opportunities are affirmed.

Jonathan Bartley, co-director of Ekklesia, asks:

Who would voters be electing in Sutton and Cheam - Philippa Stroud or her husband? The question must be asked whether, in the event she was elected to Parliament, she would on any occasion ‘submit’ to her husband's will and vote in a way that he thought was right, even if it contradicted her own position, the promises she had made to voters, or the manifesto on which she was elected?

Views on abortion

Stroud authored a short comment piece for the newsletter of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) (now removed from their website but available in the Internet Archive) in which she writes on the "hope for change", comparing the anti-abortionist movement to that of Nelson Mandela fighting apartheid.

Accusations of homophobia

In May 2010, The Observer published an article with the byline "Conservative high-flyer Philippa Stroud founded a church that tried to 'cure' homosexuals by driving out their 'demons'". In 1989, Stroud founded the King's Arms Project, a church and shelter in Bedford. The authors quoted several individuals who claimed to have been subjected to "treatment" at the Project:

Abi, a teenage girl with transsexual issues, was sent to the church by her parents, who were evangelical Christians. "Convinced I was demonically possessed, my parents made the decision to move to Bedford, because of this woman [Stroud] who had come back from Hong Kong and had the power to set me free," Abi told the Observer.

"She wanted me to know all my thinking was wrong, I was wrong and the so-called demons inside me were wrong. The session ended with her and others praying over me, calling out the demons. She really believed things like homosexuality, transsexualism and addiction could be fixed just by prayer, all in the name of Jesus.

"T" said he moved to Bedford because he believed the church could help him stop having homosexual thoughts. "I was trying to convince myself that a change was possible but, at the same time, a part of me didn't believe it was possible," he said. "The church's approach was not that it was sinful to be homosexual but that it was sinful to act on it. The aim is to get a person to a position where they don't have these sinful emotions and thoughts."

"T" said it was only after he "took a break" from the church that his depression lifted. "It was the church's attitude towards my sexuality that was the issue," he recalled.

"My impression is that she genuinely cares about people," he said of Stroud. "Her personal beliefs may get in the way sometimes, but she is a positive person."

Also quoted was Angela Paterson, an administrator at the Bedford church, who said: "With hindsight, the thing that freaks me out was everybody praying that a demon would be cast out of me because I was gay. Anything – drugs, alcohol or homosexuality, they thought you had a demon in you."

Stroud's response

The Observer subsequently received a complaint from Stroud, summarised by the newspaper as follows:

Since publication, we have received a legal complaint from Philippa Stroud. She disputes the testimonies contained in the article and states that she has helped individuals of all sexual orientations to deal with a multitude of problems such as drug addiction, self-harming, alcoholism, eating disorders, and sexual abuse through prayer as well as offering practical help and advice. She also says that she has never founded a church, let alone a church that tried to 'cure' homosexuals. She has never prayed or advised any person to change his or her sexuality and has never countenanced any person for whom she has had responsibility attempting to question any person's sexual orientation or to re-orient them. In addition, the reference to demonic activity in her book "God's help for the poor' does not relate to sexual orientation but to those who have been involved in occult practices, including violence and sexual abuse. She adds that the New Frontiers Church network is based in the UK and has over 600 branches worldwide of which 220 are in the UK and no more than 30 are in the USA. It is not part of the US Evangelical Movement.

However, although Stroud claims never to have founded a church, in their 2007 report submitted to the Charity Commission, the King's Arms Project states that:

During 1998, the King’s Arms Church was able to send out three teams to establish new churches. The founders of the King’s Arms, David and Philippa Stroud, led one team to South Birmingham to establish a similar work there.

Similarly, the 2009 report notes that:

Throughout its history the King’s Arms has been caring for poor and disadvantaged people in Bedfordshire. The King’s Arms Project commenced work among Bedford’s street-homeless in 1989 when a Residential House located in Clarendon Street, Bedford was established. The Project has developed with additional houses and elements; all of which have been set up to cater for the needs of poor and disadvantaged people. Five new churches have been established in the UK, Africa and the USA by members of the King’s Arms Church:

• David and Philippa Stroud, the founders of the King’s Arms led a team to South Birmingham in 1998.
• Martin and Louise White led a team to North Birmingham in 1998.
• Matt and Philippa Hatch led a team to Leeds in 2002.
• Drew and Megan Land went to Durban, South Africa in 2003.
• Euan and Sarah Crane went to North Carolina in 2007.

In her statement, Stroud said:

I make no apology for being a committed Christian. However it is categorically untrue that I believe homosexuality to be an illness and I am deeply offended that The Observer has suggested otherwise... The idea that I am prejudiced against gay people is both false and insulting.

When the online magazine PinkNews.co.uk emphasised to Stroud's spokesperson that The Observer's prime claim was not that she believed homosexuality to be an illness, but rather that it seemed she believed homosexuality could be overcome through prayer and the removal of "demons", a spokeperson responded that: "We will not be adding to or subtracting to [sic] the statement."

Pink News journalist Jessica Green reports that John Rubinstein, of law firm Rubinstein Phillips, is representing Stroud. The firm contacted a number of media outlets following the accusations to remind them of their responsibilities under Section 106 of the Representation of the Peoples' Act, which states that it is illegal to publish a false statement of fact relating to character or conduct, unless it can be demonstrated that there were reasonable grounds to believe the statement to be true. While Stroud's response asserted that she was not homophobic, nor believed homosexuality to be an illness, John Rubinstein declined to comment on whether Stroud believes that homosexuality is caused by demonic possession, or that she was part of an organisation which followed this doctrine.

Conservative leader and Prime Minister David Cameron defended Stroud, stating on the BBC's Asian Network that "She believes in gay equality" and has made "a very clear statement to say she was completely misreported".

A Facebook group set up by Lib Dem councillor for Onslow, Chris Ward, and with over 5100 members called upon David Cameron to sack Stroud.

'First the B&B incident, then the Julian Lewis incident, now it emerges one of his candidates likes to pray the gay away. Cameron made a big noise about how he deselected a homophobic Tory candidate "within minutes" (http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/04/28/cameron-took-action-on-homophobic-candidate-within-minutes/). Any sort of conversion therapy can cause serious damage to LGBT people who believe their sexuality is a mental affliction. If Cameron cares even the slightest about the LGBT community as he says he does, he must sack Philippa Stroud.'

Further testimony about the casting out of "demons" and the "curing" of homosexuality

Another man commenting as 'QuickFix' on The Guardian blog explained that Stroud's church in Bedford was not conventionally right-wing. The issue of homosexuality was subject to disbelief and confusion rather than overt hostility. Social action was a central feature of the church's work. As 'QuickFix' explains:

Right from the beginning one of the church's main principles was helping the poor … The majority of people in their church whose political views were on view, were much more Labour inclined than Conservative. I personally was quite surprised when I heard that Philippa was with the Conservative party.

According to 'QuickFix', the existence of demons was a given within the church:

Demons could lead to anything -- anger, or jealousy, as well as the kind of specific flaw – it was often not just that you had a demon matched to a specific transgression, but that you had demons generally. Often it was very matter of fact. The belief that a demon was present would come out of a prayer session. There might be manifestations -- violent shaking, screaming, lying on the floor. Sometimes there were none. I once saw Philippa cast out a demon in French: that stuck in my mind, I was really impressed that she was fluent enough to talk to a demon in French. There were solid Christians who would talk about themselves as having had a prayer session in which they got rid of the demon in themselves, though that would happen more within small groups or the team on the homeless project than with the whole church.

'QuickFix' was a member of the King's Arms in the 1990s and although has "no knowledge" of Stroud's current views, "it is categorically the case that homosexuality in that church was regarded as a sin, the inclination to which could be cured through prayer and counselling". Although he did not experience exorcism, 'QuickFix', a gay man, was subjected to the church's "attempts to heal" him, although "the church as a whole was pretty big on demons as the source of many an ill". He "personally witnessed Philippa casting them out of people". 'QuickFix' perceives Stroud not as "an evil bigot, but someone who has quite a positive record of helping her community, finely balanced with monumental delusion".

Front cover of God's Heart for the Poor by Philippa Stroud and Christine Leonard, published in 1999

God's Heart for the Poor

The article in The Observer asserted that "Stroud wrote a book, God's Heart for the Poor, in which she explains how to deal with people showing signs of "demonic activity"". Although Stroud is credited as co-author of 'God's Heart for the Poor' (1999) by online bookshops, the other listed author, Christine Leonard, describes the book as a "ghosted biography/how to for Philippa Stroud". The article Stroud contributed to Pro-Life Times in 2001 describes Stroud as "co-author of God's Heart for the Poor".

Publications, Contact, Resources, Notes

Publications

• Philippa Stroud and Christine Leonard God's Heart for the Poor, Kingsway Publications, 1999.
• Philippa Stroud, 'Breaking Britain: How to address the causes of knife and gun crime' in Social Market Foundation report The New Blue: Conservative candidates on new UK party challenges, launched at the Conservative party conference, September 2008.

Contact

Website (now deleted but 2008 archive available here): http://www.philippastroud.com/

Flickr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/philippastroud/

Resources

• Jamie Doward, Cal Flynn and Richard Rogers, Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people, The Observer, 2 May 2010.
• The King's Arms, '15 healed on the streets of Bedford!', audio testimony of "physical healings" carried out by The King's Arms Project