Nick Spencer was quoted in the Church Times alongside our recent polling with RED C on Christianity and nationhood. 18/05/2026

Preliminary findings from the think tank Theos, conducted by the independent market research agency RED C, suggest that Christian nationalism is a genuine phenomenon, but that it is less widespread than is widely assumed. The findings suggest a gap between support for Britain’s historic Christian identity and support for exclusionary nationalist beliefs.

In the survey of 1765 UK adults, 17 per cent thought that, to be truly British, people needed to be Christian. Just under half of these — eight per cent — strongly agreed with this statement.

Just one per cent considered being Christian to be the most important factor (from a list of 12) in being British. About 16 per cent agreed that people who did not hold Christian values did not belong in Britain; under half of these — seven per cent — strongly agreed with this statement.

Four in ten people — 41 per cent — agreed that “the law in Britain should be based on Christian values”, and 40 per cent agreed that “religious education in Britain should prioritise the teaching of Christianity ahead of other faiths.”

Dr Nick Spencer, senior fellow at Theos, told the

Church Times: “Preliminary analysis of the data shows that Christian nationalist sentiment is real in the UK, but very much a minority view.”

Speaking about the march on Saturday, Dr Spencer continued: “Our experience, having attended several Unite the Kingdom rallies and spoken to a number of people there, is that these [concerns] are not ‘one thing’ but a messy conglomeration of various sentiments, ranging from outright Muslim hatred and xenophobia to genuine Christian revivalism and legitimate political grievance.”

Read the full article in the Church Times here.

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