page_title: Christian Peoples Alliance
section_title: Craig leadership
hierarchical_section_title: Christian Peoples Alliance / History / Craig leadership
caption_attribution_description: Cropped version of (w:Alan Craig)
context_page_description: The Christian Peoples Alliance is a Christian democratic political party in the United Kingdom. The party was founded in its present form in 1999, having grown out of a cross-party advocacy group called the Movement for Christian Democracy. The first leader of the party was Ram Gidoomal; Alan Craig took over from him in 2004 and resigned in 2012. He was replaced by Sidney Cordle, the party's current leader.
context_section_description: Following this, the party continued its campaign work in London, mostly in working class areas, such as Canning Town in Newham. In 2002, Alan Craig became the first Christian Democrat to be elected in Britain, as a member of the local Newham council.
  The party's 'Mayflower Declaration' laid out the party's values and policies, voicing its opposition to the prospect of the Iraq War, deeming it "illegal, unwise and immoral" — a position by which it has stood. After the 2004 London mayoral election, Gidoomal stepped down as party leader to be succeeded by Craig. The party stood members for the 2005 general election with little electoral success, though a "blind candidating" contest run by the BBC's Newsnight programme saw members of the public, unaware of the party of each contestant speaking, place the party's manifesto and policies second. 
  The party had more success in 2006, gaining two more council seats in Canning Town. In the following year, the party had two members elected at parish council level for Aston cum Aughton in the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham. In the same year, it also gained encouragement from Scottish Catholic bishops Keith O'Brien and Philip Tartaglia for its social stances, including its stance on marriage, rights for unborn children and supporting the Church in the adoption debate. The party also defended the Anglican bishop Michael Nazir-Ali after comments he made in the media regarding Islam. 
  As part of a party pact with the Christian Party, Craig stood for the London mayoral election in 2008 as "The Christian Choice", gaining almost 3% of the vote. This was followed with 249,493 votes at the European Parliament election 2009, 1.6% of the total.
caption: Alan Craig standing for London mayor in 2008.
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