FORMER Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of Monmouth Rowan Williams has sparked a row by claiming Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is using Christianity to "stir up anti-Muslim feeling".

South Wales East MS Laura Anne Jones with Reform leader Nigel Farage
South Wales East MS Laura Anne Jones with Reform leader Nigel Farage (MS Laura Anne Jones office )

Speaking to the New Humanist magazine, Lord Williams said: "I suspect really that Farage and others want to channel anti-Muslim feeling, and it helps to have ‘we’re a Christian society’ to fling back. It gives a sort of ballast.”

Lord Williams, who was also Archbishop of Wales from 2000-2002, said of the apparent rise in support of Christian nationalism in the UK: “There are lots of possible causes. Anxiety about migration, anti-Islamism.

"In France, that anxiety has a secular aspect, but the St George’s Cross still means something in the English imagination, which still has a Christian aspect.

“The second thing is the globalising of all political discourse. The message given at international Christian conservative gatherings is that self-respecting nationalist movements need a bit of theology injected into them.

“Ironically, for someone like Nigel Farage, it’s about trying to find a presentational strategy that allows him to be taken seriously outside England. He’s often not here, after all.

“Then again, if we’re looking for what animates Christian nationalism, I think it’s in part the very simple search for someone to blame.”

Lord Williams, who is due to appear at Monmouth's Savoy Theatre in a heritage charity fundraiser in October, also took aim at right-wing activist Tommy Robinson and his claims of religious faith.

“There’s an inevitable scepticism these days about some claims to religious conviction, and I don’t want to give way to this.

"If Tommy Robinson is doing his best to lead a life of Christian discipleship, I’m very glad, but I would really want to ask him some awkward questions.

“I would ask him how attempting to lead a life of Christian discipleship squares with public rhetoric designed to produce hostility and violence.

“And although Nigel Farage thought it was worth getting a theologian on board for Reform UK, I don’t think he lies awake at night thinking about his soul.

"I may be doing the man an injustice, but I don’t believe he cares about profound theological questions.”

Appearing on right-wing media channel GB News, 'Christian activist' Fleur Meston hit back at Lord Williams' claims, saying Mr Farage's appointment of Zia Yusuf, a Muslim, as Reform's Home affairs spokesperson "immediately puts to bed any claims of Reform or Mr Farage having an anti-Muslim agenda".

"I think it's mischief-making, it's divisive and [the ex-Archbishop] just needs to stop repeating these claims. It's wrong," she added.

Mr Farage has hailed Britain's Christian values as "something to be proud of".

Earlier this year, Reform UK said it would restore Britain's Christian heritage if it won the next General Election, introducing a patriotic curriculum which reflects traditional British and Christian history, and ending the practice of converting churches into mosques.

Lord Williams, 75, was Bishop of Monmouth from 1992-2002 before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury from 2002-2012.

An Evening with Rowan Williams, in aid of the St Mary’s Tintern restoration campaign, is at Monmouth Savoy on Friday, October 2, where he will be talking with poet Pele Cox about his life, work and poetry.