As key figures in Westminster widen the debate over the role of Christianity in the country, the British public wants politicians to stay away from religion, writes Politico.
A poll commissioned by Politico by independent London-based polling company Public First found that 65% of voters support separating Christianity from politics, and supporters of all major parties think so.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s main rivals on both the right and left are increasingly including Christianity on their agendas. Nigel Farage, the leader of the populist Reform Party, has repeatedly stressed that he wants to honor Britain’s Judeo-Christian culture. The party’s home affairs spokesman, Zia Yusuf, who is a practising Muslim, has pledged to protect Britain’s Christian heritage, saying Christianity is at the heart of the country’s history. The Reform Party has promised to give churches protected site status, meaning they cannot be changed or converted into places of worship for other religions.
The Public First poll shows that voters do indeed see Christianity as an integral part of the country’s history. Asked about Farage’s claim that Britain is built on a Judeo-Christian foundation, 40% of those polled agree, while just 22% disagree. Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green supporters were more likely to agree with the claim if it was not linked to Farage. At the same time,
only 23% of voters polled would like Christianity to have a greater role in politics,
and even among Reform voters, only 28% agreed.
Danny Kruger, the Reform Party’s spokesman for the government formation, said the party was aware of the risks of overemphasizing the role of Christianity. He told Politico that the public distrusts power and abuse of power and is therefore wary of moralizing finger-wagging from Westminster, even if it broadly agrees with the church’s message. Kruger added that the public dislikes moralizing politicians, but at the same time believes that politicians and politics should reflect the country’s culture, which is actually quite traditional, and that this is creating tension.
Jules Walkden, head of research at Public First, said the public sees Christian values as an important part of the country’s history, but not as belonging to modern politics. It is therefore unlikely that the Reform Party’s religious messages will attract additional voters: “A majority of the public, including Reform’s own supporters, oppose a greater role for religion in politics, with most voters also resistant to it being used as a political wedge.”
At the other end of the spectrum is the left-wing populist Green Party, which is very active in breaking the link between church and state. In a document seen by the Daily Mail, the party talks about reducing the role of the Church of England, which would also mean that the prime minister would no longer have a say in the choice of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and bishops would be excluded from the House of Lords. Party officials stressed that this did not mean that such an approach would appear in the election manifesto, and a party spokesman said that the political force simply has a long-standing belief that the state should be separated from the church.
The Public First poll showed that the public tends to oppose reducing the importance of the church, despite the fact that the overall position leans more towards the separation of church and state.
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