Reform MP, Danny Kruger, has waded into the ongoing row over a large Muslim prayer event in Trafalgar Square, saying that “it should not happen again”.
Kruger defended Shadow justice minister Nick Timothy over comments on on X in which 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 should not 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 is “fine” for “small groups” of people of any religion to pray in public spaces, there should be different rules for “national spaces” like Trafalgar Square.
He went further by suggesting that churches should have “special privilege” for worship in such spaces because of Christianity’s unique place in Britain’s socio-political heritage.
“Nick Timothy and Nigel Farage are right, and Sadiq Khan and Keir Starmer are wrong,” he said in a lengthy post on X.
“Small groups of people, of whatever religion, praying in public places is fine. And as a Christian country we should allow a special privilege for churches to lead services in our national spaces, like the Palm Sunday celebration that happens in Trafalgar Square.
“What we don’t want is mass ritual observances intended to claim the civic realm for another religion, or assert the domination of another culture over our own Christian traditions.
“What happens in our national spaces is not neutral. People use Trafalgar Square, for celebrations and demonstrations, to make a point about the kind of country they want us to be.
“The Palm Sunday pageant reminds us of who we are – not as individuals (many or most of us don’t identify as Christians at all) but as a national community, with the roots of our institutions in the ground 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 different point: that Britain is not a Christian country, and that – inshallah – one day it shall be Muslim. This is unacceptable to the British public and indeed incompatible with our constitution.”
He added that he did not believe it was just “another harmless expression of Britain’s religious diversity” but an “an abuse of liberalism”, and concluded his post by saying that “it would be good to hear the Church of England say so”.