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Not here in this tolerant green and pleasant land of gentle, if deserted, country churches. No, surely Britain is well-fortified against American-style extreme evangelism. But Christianity erupts in its latest manifestation as far-right nationalist politics cosplaying as piety. Take seriously these Christian soldiers marching onward as to war under Tommy Robinson’s banner, some dressed as crusaders. “Are we still a Christian country?” a GB News reporter asked the prime minister, who wriggled uncomfortably beside Donald Trump at their press conference.
Keir Starmer is an atheist and a humanist who celebrates Jewish festivals with his family, so here’s his reply verbatim: “Yeah, look, I mean, in terms of a Christian country, I was christened. So, that is … my church has been, um, all my life. And we are, that is, wired into our informal constitution. Of course, we celebrate many other faiths as well. I’m really proud that we’re able to do so as a country.” That was probably the best he could do without lying as he took on the excruciating duty, on our behalf, not to offend the bully who can wreck our economy at the click of his small fingers.
Labour is not yet strapped into armour for the fight with the right, still tongue-tied, lacking the language, afraid of offending Tommy Robinson supporters instead of confronting them. Gloves-off, racist demagogues are on the march and the country is at more risk than it was when the threat came from Oswald Mosley’s blackshirts: he drew 10,000 to a rally at Olympia in London in 1934, plus the Mail’s raucous support. Nigel Farage and Reform UK keep their distance from the march, but they draw on anti-immigration emotions Robinson arouses. Farage has the voice of most of the rightwing press now: in an election tomorrow, he could take No 10.
Church leaders finally produced a public letter this week against what they called “co-opting or corrupting of the Christian faith to exclude others”. But how timid: “Many individuals and communities felt anxious, unsettled and even threatened by aspects of the march.” Well, yes indeed, terrified. “There were undoubtedly diverse motivations for those engaged in the event.” For too many there was just one motivation: racism. They sympathised: “We also understand that for many of those involved in the rally there is a deep sense of frustration at feeling unheard and forgotten in the democratic process” and society must deal with “poverty, inequality and exclusion”. I believe that lots of those marching were doing so because of racism and thuggery, not poverty or democracy. The churches, which said they were “deeply concerned” about the misuse of “Christian symbols, particularly the cross”, sounded like a company protecting its logo.
On the Robinson march in London, the great wooden crosses looked like armaments: 26 police officers were injured, four seriously. The marchers’ “Christ is King” flags declared a radicalised ethno-supremacism. Robinson claims he was “led to Christ” by a far-right pastor, Rikki Doolan, while in prison; Farage is warier of God, but rallies crowds for “standing up for our Judeo-Christian culture”.
Humanists UK was a lone voice sounding the alarm about far-right Christians looking to dissolve the boundaries between church and state, and promote deeply conservative values. The idea was long dismissed as an Americanism that couldn’t happen here, but here it is. The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a horrible reminder of democracy in danger, but his dictums define the Christian nationalist threat: “If I see a Black pilot, I’m going to be, like, boy, I hope he’s qualified.” “Prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people, that’s a fact.” To Taylor Swift: “Reject feminism. Submit to your husband. You’re not in charge.” “Islam is the sword the left is using to slit the throat of America.”
The Liberal Democrats fearlessly warned “the country is in peril” at their party conference. Ed Davey wisely refused the Trump banquet, calls for sanctions against Elon Musk for “inciting violence” and cleverly packed their hall with union flags, encouraging everyone to put out more flags, reclaiming them from the right. While Kemi Badenoch trails after Robert Jenrick into the arms of Faragism, Labour is not yet in full-throated, no-holds-barred refutation of Farage, with Blue Labour delusions of wooing back lost “red wall” voters: they’ve gone. Faith-flag-and-family Lord Glasman is mostly on GB News calling Brexit “magnificent” and demanding European Convention of Human Rights withdrawal, as monitored by the New World.
Labour is held back by misplaced social conscience, sympathising with left-behind places where Reform flourishes. But mumbling self-doubt is no way to face down a hateful mob. Xenophobia always lurks beneath the skin, waiting for some opportunist demagogue to inflame it into a festering boil. It requires decent politicians uniting to lance it, countering it with values broadly shared by most people.
You might think this most secular country is vaccinated against Christian nationalism, when 53% have no religion and only 37% call themselves Christians. But the Christian label offers a veneer of respectability to tribal racists unlikely to fill actual pews, an identity cloak for gut nativists who abhor anyone a bit brown.
Remember how Brexit began with a few harmless “fruitcakes”. And don’t underestimate the power of the vastly wealthy right. Foremost is the hedge-funder Paul Marshall, Brexiter, joint owner of GB News, founder of UnHerd, owner of the Spectator: he helped fund his close friend Michael Gove’s plan to send a King James Bible to every school when Gove was education secretary. (Gove is now editor of the Spectator.) He attends service at the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), which founded the Alpha course, hotbed of the Christian conservatism that opposes same-sex blessings. As the chair of the Sequoia Trust, he has funded both HTB and the Church Revitalisation Trust, whose stated goal is “the evangelisation of the nation”, with millions of pounds. And he is a funder of the HTB spin-off St Mellitus College, which by 2019 was training a quarter of all future clergy, according to Prospect’s in-depth analysis.
Hope Not Hate also reported that Marshall liked or reposted messages with crude anti-Muslim content: “there has never been a country that remained peaceful with a sizeable Islamic presence”, “If we want European civilization to survive we need to not just close the borders but start mass expulsions immediately” and “once the Muslims get to 15 to 20 per cent of the population, the current cold civil war will turn hot”. A representative for Marshall noted that the examples “represent a small and unrepresentative sample of over 5,000 posts. This sample does not represent his views.” And that, “all his posts have now been deleted to avoid any further misunderstanding”.
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Note also this growing civil war talk, trumpeted by Reform UK and Robinson, less warning than urging. “We’re now bordering on a British revolution,” Robinson has said, according to Matthew d’Ancona’s New World profile. Take no comfort from Farage and Robinson’s mutual detestation: Farage parades as “moderate” beside the violence that surrounds Robinson. But I believe they would collude as necessary.
In their long-delayed choice of a new archbishop of Canterbury, the C of E needs an unhesitating opponent of Christian nationalism. There is a time for understanding, but this is a time for denouncing racist demagogues and shaming their supporters. However, that duty falls mainly on politicians, the government above all. Protecting borders from unregistered migrants is every government’s difficult task, but dithering over sympathy with Reform backers or even far-right protestors, not necessarily poor, only insults the great majority of the hard-up, who are at ease in mixed communities and don’t turn to the far right.
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Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
