Church warns against fake 'banned Christmas' claims ahead of Robinson rally

A senior bishop in the Church of England has hit out at fake claims that “Christmas has been cancelled” and criticised those seeking to politicise Christianity ahead of a carols event organised by anti-migrant activist Tommy Robinson.

- HOLLY BANCROFT

Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has urged supporters of his Unite the Kingdom movement to “put the Christ back into Christmas” at today’s outdoor event in Whitehall.

In a significant intervention, the Right Reverend David Walker, the Bishop of Manchester, has said it is “offensive” that people are “appropriating this great Christian festival of light triumphing over darkness as a prop in a dim culture war”.

Writing for The Independent, Dr Walker said: “Each year we see a rather strange tradition: familiar claims that somewhere, someone is trying to ‘ban’ Christmas.”

He warned that populists are keen to scour the internet in search of “something, anything, to show that Christmas is supposedly being taken away”.

He continued: “While they focus on something different each time, at heart it’s usually the same tale: that some ‘other’ out there wants to erase the traditional idea of Christmas.

Sometimes it is said to be a shadowy but somehow ubiquitous ‘woke’ elite, sometimes minorities, and often people of other faiths. “The people behind these stories are not doing this to share the message of Christmas - of joy and love - but to spread division.”

The bishop hailed Christmas as “one moment in the year when, even in our more secular society, the powerful message of love, of God coming and living among us as one of us, cuts through”.