Blitz on the "sex and power" cults

The Mail on Sunday (UK)/October 20, 1996

A crackdown on the 'insidious' tide of religious cults was announced yesterday.

In a strongly worded attack, Home Office Minister Tom Sackville said: "In the past the Home Office has seemed to give the impression it is neutral and I very much regret this. We're anti-cult."

He said the true purpose of cults was not religion but sex and power, and revealed that the research group INFORM was to lose the Government's financial and moral support.

Mr Sackville also announced that the term 'new religious movements' - favoured by INFORM and cults - was to be banned from ministerial jargon.

Mr Sackville, speaking to the anti-cult group FAIR, said: "These people are insidious and they recruit in order to exploit and abuse".