by Georgina Mumford, spiked
From the hectoring TradCaths to Tommy Robinson’s carol services, mixing faith and politics damages both.
omething peculiar is afoot in Great Britain. Last year, hundreds gathered on Bournemouth beach to witness a mass baptism. Crowds of young men marched under ‘Christ is King’ banners through the rain-slicked streets of London as part of the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest. MP Danny Kruger, then still a Conservative, went viral after declaring to an empty parliament chamber: ‘The story of England is the story of Christianity… We have to own our Christian story, or repudiate it.’ Meanwhile, as overall church attendance continues its slow slide across the UK, reports suggest young people are rediscovering faith with an intensity that belies the statistics and falling pew counts alike. A quiet revival, it seems, is stirring.
There is much debate surrounding the identity of the new Christians. Outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent have launched head-scratching analyses into why ‘supporters of Tommy Robinson’ are being baptised en masse. The Times questions whether young men have ‘lost their herd immunity to Christianity’. At its kindest, the commentary paints young converts as ‘lost boys’ searching for meaning. At its harshest, it views the revivalists as hostile, hard-right interlopers using the Church’s imagery to further their political causes.
So what do we know about the newly devout? A 2025 report by the Bible Society describes the standard-bearers of the Christian resurgence as predominantly young and male. They are also more likely to be Catholic than Pentecostal or Anglican, suggesting an inclination towards a more liturgical, ritualistic version of the faith, as opposed to something purely experiential. Though we have yet to gain a complete picture, it is difficult to deny that the public face of Britain’s latest generation of believers seems designed to short-circuit every residual Anglican stereotype: not meek, guilt-ridden, or satisfied with the ‘milky’ Church, but bold, politically active and unapologetically online.