New research has found that among all major religions in Britain, Christianity is the one people feel most free to speak about, even critically, without fear of backlash or consequences.

The “Freedom of Expression” survey, published by the Government’s Commission for Countering Extremism, reveals that only 17 per cent of adults said they felt the need to hold back from expressing their views on Christianity.

This is significantly lower than the 38 per cent who said they self-censor when speaking about Islam and 25 per cent who do so when discussing Judaism.

The survey of 2,300 people, conducted by Ipsos UK, aimed to examine public perceptions and experiences of freedom of expression in England and Wales.

It found that around half of people believe Christianity, Sikhism, Hinduism and Buddhism was fairly protected in the UK today.  Meanwhile, 39 per cent say that Islam was too protected, and two in five thought Judaism had a fair amount of protection.

However, it concluded that if people are of a certain religion, they are more likely to think that their own religion needs more protection. For example, 41 per cent of Christians think that Christianity is not protected enough, versus 28 per cent overall. This compares to 59 percent of Muslims thinking Islam is not protected enough, versus 18 per cent overall.

The report also stated: “People from different demographic groups tend to lean towards either side of the spectrum. For example, men, older people (aged 65+), people from white ethnicities and Christians are more likely to think that people are too easily offended.

“People from these demographic groups also tend to lean more in favour of free speech across multiple topics but generally feel able to freely share their views."

The government set up a new group in February to come up with a new definition of Islamophobia within six months as incidents of anti-Muslim hatred reached the highest number on record in 2024.