Sunder Katwala, director of the British Future think tank, challenged Reform’s claim that migrants are undermining Christianity. “There’s an irony that it is Britain’s new migrant populations that are slowing the decline of church-going in Britain,” he said in a statement to POLITICO.
Less than half (46.2 percent) of the U.K. population described themselves as Christian in the 2021 England and Wales census, down from 59.3 percent in 2011.
More than a third (37.2 percent) said they had no religion, up from 25.2 percent 10 years earlier.
Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson criticized Reform for failing to recognize the growing number of non-Christians in Britain.
“Most of us in Britain aren’t Christian in our beliefs, practices, or identity. Although Christianity has contributed to our heritage, pre-Christian, non-Christian, and post-Christian influences have been just as important,” he said in a statement.
Reform UK also announced Monday it would proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organizations. It will also overhaul the Prevent program, which aims to stop people from becoming terrorists.
A new group linking the church and Reform UK called the Christian Fellowship for Reform was launched last year. Earlier this month, James Orr, a Christian and associate professor of philosophy of religion at the University of Cambridge, was appointed Reform UK’s head of policy.
Sam Blewett contributed reporting