Reform will likely be ‘far friendlier’ to Christians than other parties if it wins office

A Reform government can be “far friendlier” to Christians in Britain because Nigel Farage “really believes it”, a key figure within the party has claimed.

James Orr, a philosopher, theologian and, more recently, Reform UK’s head of policy, made the comments during an interview with The Telegraph.

At once a dream of supporters and a nightmare of opponents, the prospect of a Nigel Farage premiership has change into a really real one. For over a yr Reform UK has dominated opinion polls and while support has declined within the last six months, the party maintains a robust lead over all the other parties.

Farage has previously identified himself as a member of the Church of England, albeit one who’s at odds with the church leadership and doesn’t often attend church.

Orr said of Farage’s faith, “He’s got a sort of grounded Christianity … His fondness for Christianity, or Judeo-Christianity as he calls it, comes from a way that it belongs to the nation that he loves.”

Pushing back, The Telegraph’s Tim Stanley, a Catholic, said this kind of Christianity seemed like “English Shinto”, referring to the religious cult surrounding the Japanese Emperor.

The term “English Shinto” has been promoted and was possibly coined by the historian David Starkey. Starkey, an atheist who can also be near Farage and Reform, despite being a member of the Conservative Party, has spoken positively of the Church of England’s role as a national unifier.

In 2012 he told the Guardian that prior to Michael Ramsey becoming Archbishop of Canterbury in 1961, “the archbishops had been the high priests of English Shinto: in other words, the church’s job was really simply to [enable us to] worship the monarchy and, by extension, ourselves. That was sensible. But then it gets cluttered up with all this nonsense about Christianity.”

Orr, whose wife is a vicar, described his own faith in similar terms that Farage has used prior to now, saying of his Anglicanism, “[I’m] hanging on by my fingernails. Imperfectly practising. I practise once I can … It’s very difficult for me to go to church on a Sunday.”

Of Farage’s personal faith, Orr said, “I don’t think I’ve ever spoken to him about religion … but if you happen to are a Christian, Reform goes to be far friendlier to you than the opposite parties.”

Farage, he said, is “not only giving lip service to it”.

“He really believes it,” Orr said, although he struggles with the “leftward, progressive turn that he identifies within the … leadership of the Church of England, which he deeply regrets”.