The vicar-turned-author GP Taylor said yesterday he was deserting the "sinking ship" of the Church of England which he described as the "spiritual arm of the New Labour".

Taylor, whose children's book Shadowmancer became an international bestseller, said he was turning instead to the Roman Catholic church, which he believes is less afraid to stand up for important moral issues. Writing in the Yorkshire Post, he said the Church of England had "sunk into a liberal pit that was no earthly use and offered no hope, no love and no grace".

He added: "It was going through the motions of faith and was largely irrelevant to the people it once thought it served. Like so many other Anglicans, I am at that place where I feel I must desert a sinking ship."