Turning The Ballot Box Against Republicans

Faith and Reform: is the religious right on the rise in UK politics?
Peter Walker
Senior political correspondent
Powerful Christian figures are emerging in Britain but there are important differences from the US, where evangelism has fuelled Trump

At recent Reform UK press conferences, two very distinctive heads can often be spotted in the front row: the near-white locks of Danny Kruger, the party’s head of policy, and the swept-back blond mane of James Orr, now a senior adviser to Nigel Farage.

As well as guiding the policy programme for what could be the UK’s next government, the pair have something else in common. Both are highly devout Christians who came to religion in adulthood and have trenchant views on social issues such as abortion and the family.

Kruger, an MP who defected from the Conservatives in September, and Orr, who is a Cambridge academic, also sit on the advisory board of a rightwing thinktank called the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, led by Philippa Stroud, a Conservative peer who is strongly religious.

Another member is Paul Marshall, the hedge fund millionaire who owns GB Newsand the rightwing Spectator magazine. Marshall is a devout Christian.

Religion, specifically Protestant evangelism, has in recent decades been one of the defining elements of rightwing politics in the US. Its adherents form the bedrock of Donald Trump’s support. Is the UK starting to head down the same path?

There are some links. Orr is sufficiently close to JD Vance that he has hosted the US vice-president at his family home. He is also involved in the National Conservatism movement, which has connections to the US religious-populism world.

But any closer parallels falter on a simple matter of numbers. Polling shows that close to a quarter of US adults are evangelicals, but the proportion for the UK is about a tenth of that at most.

There is another important factor to consider. While US evangelicals lean firmly to the right, with nearly three-quarters approving of Trump’s presidency, new polling by the UK’s Evangelical Alliance (EA) suggests that, for all the prominence of people such as Kruger and Marshall, the wider picture here is quite different.

A poll of nearly 1,500 evangelicals shared with the Guardian shows Labour in the lead with 26% support. Reform and the Liberal Democrats are level on 20%, with the Conservatives on 18% and the Greens 12%.

Other questions demonstrate support among evangelicals for more generous welfare payments, but concerted alarm about plans to legalise assisted dying.

Danny Webster, the head of advocacy at the EA, says that the UK’s evangelicals tend to have conservative views on social issues, but they are also realistic about how these are often a minority view.

“Sometimes with evangelicals there can be a dissonance between opinions, especially on social issues, and how people vote,” he said. “For example, someone might have a strong opinion on abortion, but they don’t see voting as likely to lead to change. So the opinions on economic issues like poverty can win as social issues don’t have an outlet.”

Evangelism does exist in parliament, including cross-party prayer group meetings. But it is a phenomenon also of the left, with the likes of Kruger balanced out by Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat former leader, and the Labour MP Rachael Maskell.

Maskell is very open about how faith shapes her politics, notably on issues such as poverty. She lost the party whip for a period due after rebelling on welfare and other issues.

Moral justice was “a big part” of Labour politics, she said: “It’s part of our roots, how we think about inequality in society, making sure we have a just system that serves the people, as well as a just immigration system that keeps our border safe but recognises the dignity of people coming to the UK.”

There is, however, a different and newer side to religion in UK politics, one more closely modelled on US ideas of religious nationalism.

The far-right agitator Tommy Robinson has begun to present himself as explicitly Christian, although much of this is done as a contrast to Islam, the main religion he targets.

Similarly, Nick Tenconi, who leads the UK outpost of Turning Point, the rightwing student group set up by the killed US activist Charlie Kirk, includes social media messaging about the country needing to “return to Christ” alongside anti-Islam and anti-migrant content.

In a dramatic manifestation of this, in October a Turning Point-allied Christian nationalist group called King’s Army marched in formation wearing branded black tracksuits through Soho, a location seemingly chosen as it is the centre of London’s LGBT community.

All this remains, however, fairly niche in UK politics. Critics sometimes portray Marshall as the wealthy incubator of US-style evangelism, but friends insist he is little more than a devout Anglican who, as one put it, “is strongly opposed to Christian nationalism and any kind of politicisation of faith”.

Kruger is not averse to occasional off-piste rhetoric, for example using a speech to the National Conservatism conference in London to condemn what he said was a younger generation indoctrinated by “a mix of Marxism and narcissism and paganism, self-worship and nature-worship”.

C of E to challenge Tommy Robinson’s ‘put Christ back into Christmas’ message
Church leaders respond to far-right appropriation of Christian symbols with ‘Outsiders welcome’ message

The Church of England is to launch a poster campaign aimed at challenging the anti-migrant message of Tommy Robinson, whose “Unite the Kingdom” movement has urged its supporters to join a carols event next weekend to “put the Christ back into Christmas”.

The posters, which will go on display at bus stops, say “Christ has always been in Christmas” and “Outsiders welcome”. They will also be available for local churches to download and display over the festive period.

The C of E’s decision to challenge Robinson’s extreme rightwing stance comes amid growing unease among church leaders about the rise of Christian nationalism and the appropriation of Christian symbols to bolster the views of his supporters.

At a march organised by Unite the Kingdom in September there was a significant presence of Christian symbols, including wooden crosses and flags bearing Christian slogans, as well as chants of “Christ is king” and calls to defend “God, faith, family, homeland”.

Last week, Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, announced next weekend’s Christmas carol event at an undisclosed outdoor venue in central London. It would mark the beginning of “a new Christian revival in the UK – a moment to reclaim and celebrate our heritage, culture and Christian identity”.

Some Christian activists are planning a counter-event to protest at the far-right views of those organising the carol service.

The C of E posters are part of a wider response to Robinson and Unite the Kingdom from a number of churches. The Joint Public Issues Team, a partnership between the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist church and the United Reformed church is offering a “rapid response resource” for local churches trying to “navigate the complexities” of Christian nationalism and the “co-option of Christian language and symbols – including Christmas – for a nationalist agenda”.

The Rev Arun Arora, bishop of Kirkstall and co-lead bishop on racial justice for the C of E, said: “We must confront and resist the capture of Christian language and symbols by populist forces seeking to exploit the faith for their own political ends.”

He said that Robinson’s conversion to Christianity in prison was welcome but did not give him “the right to subvert the faith so that it serves his purposes rather than the other way round”.

A church that failed to act in response would be diminished, Arora added. “Whether in the warnings of the prophets or the teaching of Jesus, there is an unambiguous call to ensure justice for the weakest and most vulnerable.

“As we approach Christmas and recall the Holy Family’s own flight as refugees, we reaffirm our commitment to stand alongside others in working for an asylum system that is fair, compassionate, and rooted in the dignity of being human.”

After September’s Unite the Kingdom march, Christian leaders published an open letter saying that “any co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others is unacceptable”. Among the signatories were seven C of E bishops and senior leaders in the Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal churches, the Church of Scotland, the Salvation Army and the Catholic social action network Caritas.