Danny Kruger says churches must have ‘special privilege’ to worship in national spaces

Reform MP, Danny Kruger, has waded into the continued row over a big Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square, saying that “it shouldn’t occur again”. 

Kruger defended Shadow justice minister Nick Timothy over comments on on X wherein he said that the prayer event was an “act of domination and division”. 

The prayer gathering – called an Adhan – was held during Ramadan and attended by the Muslim Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. 

Timothy has since been accused of “Islamophobia” and faced calls for his sacking from Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has backed Timothy, saying she believed the prayer event shouldn’t have been allowed to go ahead and that she “didn’t like what I saw” in footage. 

Reform leader Nigel Farage has also defended Timothy, echoing his view that the prayer event was a display of “dominance over our capital city and our culture”.

Kruger, a former Conservative MP, has now come out in support of Timothy, saying that while he believes it’s “high quality” for “small groups” of individuals of any religion to wish in public spaces, there needs to be different rules for “national spaces” like Trafalgar Square. 

He went further by suggesting that churches must have “special privilege” for worship in such spaces due to Christianity’s unique place in Britain’s socio-political heritage. 

“Nick Timothy and Nigel Farage are right, and Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer are mistaken,” he said in a lengthy post on X.

“Small groups of individuals, of whatever religion, praying in public places is high quality. And as a Christian country we should always allow a special privilege for churches to steer services in our national spaces, just like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square.

“What we don’t desire is mass ritual observances intended to assert the civic realm for an additional religion, or assert the domination of one other culture over our own Christian traditions.

“What happens in our national spaces just isn’t neutral. People use Trafalgar Square, for celebrations and demonstrations, to make some extent in regards to the form of country they need us to be.

“The Palm Sunday pageant reminds us of who we’re – not as individuals (many or most of us don’t discover as Christians in any respect) but as a national community, with the roots of our institutions in the bottom of the Bible and our most solemn communal moments, from coronations to funerals, mediated through the liturgies of the Church. 

“A mass Adhan held there, or in any town square, is making a special point: that Britain just isn’t a Christian country, and that – inshallah – sooner or later it shall be Muslim. This is unacceptable to the British public and indeed incompatible with our structure.”

He added that he didn’t consider it was just “one other harmless expression of Britain’s religious diversity” but an “an abuse of liberalism”, and concluded his post by saying that “it could be good to listen to the Church of England say so”.