Conservative MP Sir Desmond Swayne has said he does not believe Christian nationalism will take root in the UK; however, he revealed that the movement is “creeping ever so slightly into Britain” following the defection of Danny Kruger to Reform.
In a column published this week, Swayne said the ideology had been “imported from the USA”, where it shaped much of the “current political agenda”.
But he doesn’t believe the idea would resonate with British voters.
“I’m not too concerned,” he wrote, adding that “religion no longer has the same political resonance in Britain as it retains in the USA”.
He added voters in the UK were “simply not swayed by political offerings presented as Christian” and were unlikely to be drawn to parties or candidates who make faith central to their campaigns.
Swayne pointed to the Christian People’s Alliance’s poor results in the 2001 London mayoral elections as proof that overtly Christian politics fails to gain traction.
The MP, who described himself as a “Church and King Tory”, said he valued cross-party Bible studies in Parliament and warned that a greater religious divide could damage this unity.
“If a Christian nationalist movement did rear its head in the UK,” he said. “I am not convinced that it would really be Christian at all.”