Gary made sure he got to Whitehall early for the “unite the kingdom” (UTK) outdoor carol service in the run-up to Christmas. After about 150,000 people turned up for the last rally called by Tommy Robinson in September, the leader of the anti-migrant far-right movement, he wanted to be sure of a prime position.
He needn’t have worried. About 1,500 people – perhaps 1% of September’s turnout – came to Whitehall to sing carols and hear preachers in the twilight of a mid-December day. Robinson had publicly insisted the event was a non-political celebration of Christmas; maybe that deterred some of movement’s more ardent activists.
Crosses and flags were on display, but there was little overt talk – either from the preachers or people in the crowd – of Robinson’s favoured political themes. One did complain loudly that her grandchildren were “banned from celebrating Christmas” at school; another group of women handed out leaflets calling for communities to be “protected from illegal immigration”.
Standing beneath a “Jesus saves” sign, Gary said he was a believer but didn’t attend church. “That’s not for me, I can’t be bothered with all that,” he said. Some others attending the service also said they were Christians but not churchgoers.
Since Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, emerged from prison last May, bearded and wearing a wooden cross around his neck, churches have been uncertain how to respond to incipient Christian nationalism on the far right of British politics. Some church members have wanted to push back unequivocally against racism and xenophobia, saying it has no place in Christianity; others have warned that any direct response risks amplifying the far right’s message.
Robinson was “led to Christ” while in prison, according to Rikki Doolan, a minister at the Spirit Embassy church in Tottenham, north London, which has a large component of worshippers with west African heritage. Three weeks before his release, Doolan – a former Ukip candidate in local elections – paid Robinson a visit. “We spoke about the gospel, and he received Jesus Christ as his personal lord and saviour, right there in the prison,” Doolan said later.
After his release, Robinson told the far right Visegrad 24 media platform that he had “looked deeply over the past few years about what we are fighting for and what made Britain, and it is Christianity. We are a Christian culture”.
Over the Christmas period, Robinson posted a number of messages on X positioning himself as an advocate for a Christian revival, including a Boxing Day repost of a tweet by a rightwing account which claimed there had been a “MASSIVE surge in attendance across all denominations” with the comment: “It’s happening” and a cross emoji. The account shared part of a Sky news interview with an Anglican vicar talking about “huge growth” in churchgoing, particularly since the pandemic.
At the huge UTK march in central London in September, there was overt Christian symbolism on display, including large crosses and placards proclaiming “Christ is King”. Hymns were sung, prayers were said.
Some have suggested that the far right’s newfound Christianity is cultural rather than deeply rooted in faith, or that it is simply a respectable cloak to drape over anti-migrant and Islamophobic views, while also tapping into potential new supporters from beyond Robinson’s largely white base. Others point to entrenched, hugely influential and well-funded Christian nationalism in the US, saying he is seeking to emulate that movement.
According to Chris Wickland, a senior pastor at the evangelical Living World Church Network in Hampshire and an associate of Robinson, the rise of Christian nationalism is a “continuation of much older debates about identity, sovereignty and social cohesion that have been unfolding for years”.
He said: “Many of the people attending our churches currently are disillusioned with the political situation in the country and see faith as a stabilising influence in family life, local communities and society more generally … People are drawn by a shared concern about the role of faith in public life, and many are also exploring or deepening their own personal commitment to Christianity.”
Online footage has shown Wickland attempting to find new members of his flock from the ranks of men attaching flags to lamp-posts as part of the rightwing “Raise the Colours” movement.
A few UTK supporters have begun turning up in churches, creating a dilemma for clergy and fellow congregants who don’t share their views. “People are showing up on the back of these rallies, and local church leaders are thinking: ‘What do we do with this?’ It’s something we have to think very hard about,” said one person who attended a December meeting of church, charity and civil society leaders in Westminster on their response to Christian nationalism.
Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall and co-lead in the Church of England on racial justice, said he “rejoiced” that Robinson had come to faith, but that the far-right leader needed to hear the key messages of Christianity: love thy neighbour, compassion, justice for the weak and vulnerable.
Within the C of E, Arora has been at the forefront of the argument that the church needs to push back hard against the Islamophobia and anti-migrant stance of Robinson – while taking care not to demonise all those in his orbit.
“Not everyone who goes on a UTK march is racist. No one is in favour of uncontrolled immigration. But that doesn’t mean you stand neutral in the face of Robinson’s message,” Arora said. He and other Leeds clergy have engaged with protesters outside asylum hotels in the city, offering cake and a vision of “positive patriotism” in an effort to create a space for discussion. In the next few years there would be a “battle as to what Christianity is”, he said.
In the lead-up to the UTK carols service, a number of clergy publicly called for a firm response from the C of E. Their case was strengthened by criticism of the event by the Baptist Union, Methodists and United Reformed Church. Churches Together in England shared an opinion piece questioning “why so many churches were slow to challenge [Robinson’s] insidious rhetoric”.
The day before the UTK carols event, the C of E national head office released a 43-second video to remind people that “Christmas belongs to all of us”. It didn’t mention Robinson or the UTK carols event, but C of E officials indicated that they were happy for it to be seen as a response to both. Some of those who had argued for pushback felt it was a “safe” way of heading off a more radical response.
Differences in views on how to respond to Robinson, UTK and the Reform UK party are believed to exist at the very top of the C of E, between Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, who has a long track record on racial justice issues, and the incoming archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally. She condemned the use of “Christian symbols to oppress” in a pre-Christmas interview with the Sunday Times, but Mullally is thought to be wary of the potential pitfalls of a political battle with hard-right politicians and activists.
In January, C of E bishops will discuss the church’s response to Christian nationalism and the far right at one of their regular meetings. Nick Spencer, a senior fellow at the Christian thinktank Theos, who is embarking on a two-year study of Christian nationalism, said the C of E faced a genuine dilemma. If it embraced rightwing activists proclaiming newfound Christianity, it would “get its head kicked in”; if it slammed the door in their face, it would be “missionally-speaking a catastrophe”.
The church is “damned if they do, damned if they don’t”, he said. “I don’t think it can remain silent, but its response risks underlining the narrative that the C of E is only for the comfortable middle-class.”
Steve Chalke, a Baptist minister and founder of the Oasis Charitable Trust, said to ignore Christian nationalism was “really unwise. You don’t ignore a cancer in your body”.
Chalke, who has spent decades working against poverty and injustice, said: “We need to create community, belonging, hope. Britain is not only a post-Christian society, now it’s post-secular. People are searching for meaning and purpose.”
According to Spencer, what happens next depends on whether Robinson reflects on the low turnout for the UTK carols and decides to “quietly ditch” his Christian nationalist rhetoric. “Or will he stick with it? How sincere is he in his Christianity?”
A possible clue came the week before Christmas, when Robinson and UTK announced the “largest demonstration for national unity and strength this country has ever witnessed” on 16 May in central London. It was billed as a “celebration of our culture, our identity and our shared destiny”. There was no mention of Christianity.
