Faith and Reform: Is the Religious Right Gaining Ground in British Political Life?

At recent the Reform party press conferences, a pair of notable figures can often be spotted in the forefront: the near-white locks of party policy chief Danny Kruger and the styled blond hair of James Orr.

As well as guiding the policy programme for what might become the UK’s future administration, the pair have something else in common. Both are deeply committed Christian who found religion in later life, and hold trenchant views on social issues such as abortion and the traditional family unit.

Connections and Convictions

The MP Kruger, who defected from the Conservatives, and Orr, a Cambridge academic, are members of the steering committee of a conservative policy group known as the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.

A further participant is the financier Paul Marshall, the investment tycoon who owns GB News and the rightwing Spectator magazine. Marshall is a devout Christian.

“Faith, particularly Protestant evangelism, has in recent decades been one of the defining elements of US rightwing politics,” its followers providing the core of a particular political support.

Transatlantic Links

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

But any closer comparisons soon fall down due to a basic issue of scale. While surveys indicate that close to a fourth of US adults are evangelical Christians, the proportion for the UK is roughly one-tenth of that at most.

The UK Evangelical Vote

An additional important factor to consider. While US evangelicals tilt strongly to the political right, new polling by the UK’s Evangelical Alliance suggests that the wider picture in Britain is quite different.

Research of nearly 1,500 evangelicals places Labour in the first place with 26% support. Reform and the Liberal Democrats are tied on 20%, with the Conservatives on 18%.

Further polling demonstrate backing from evangelicals for more generous welfare payments, but also concerted alarm about plans to permit assisted suicide.

“Among evangelicals there can be a dissonance between opinions, especially on social issues, and how people cast their ballot,” explained a representative. “For example, someone might have a strong opinion on abortion, but they don’t see voting as a way to lead to change.”

Faith Across the Aisle

Evangelism does exist in parliament, including cross-party prayer group meetings. But it is a phenomenon present on the political left, with figures like Kruger balanced out by Tim Farron and the Labour Party Member of Parliament Rachael Maskell.

Maskell is very open about how faith informs her politics, especially concerning issues such as economic disadvantage.

“Ethical fairness was ‘a big part’ of the party's ethos,” she stated. “It’s part of our foundations, how we think about inequality in society, ensuring we have a fair framework.”

Emerging Currents

Nonetheless, there exists a different and newer side to religion in UK politics, one more closely modelled on US concepts of religious nationalism.

Tommy Robinson has begun to present himself as explicitly Christian, though a lot of this is done as a contrast to Islam.

Similarly, Nick Tenconi, who leads the UK branch of the Turning Point group, posts social media messaging about the country needing to “re-embrace Christianity” combined with anti-Islam content.

In a dramatic display of this, a linked Christian nationalist group called King’s Army paraded through Soho, a location seemingly chosen as it is the heart of London’s LGBT community.

Limited Influence

These elements remain, however, fairly niche in UK politics. While critics sometimes depict certain figures as financial backers of US-style evangelism, associates maintain they are simply observant believers who are strongly opposed to any politicisation of faith.

Kruger is not shy of occasional off-piste rhetoric, for example in an address to condemn what he said was a younger generation indoctrinated by a mix of ideologies.

“In the UK you do have some Christian nationalists, but when it comes to politics it more often be a sort of longing for a Christian past, linked to our historical character,” said one commentator.

One Christian MP on the right noted that while the issue of assisted dying had united MPs with faith, any connections beyond that felt limited.

“I certainly don’t get the sense of much of an organized faith-based lobby,” they said. “In my view, my faith is more a foundation for what I already believe. And here, religion is not particularly a decisive electoral issue.”