I don’t believe in the established church. But we must keep Parliamentary prayers

A Parliament without prayer? Be careful what you wish for, says Tim Farron MP. In a Chamber often crammed full of egos, there can be no better antidote than to start your day with prayerful remembrance that God is in control, not you

House of Commons Leader Lucy Powell recently spoke of her plans to modernise some of Parliament’s arcane practices. But she confirmed that the tradition of saying prayers in the Commons Chamber to start each day’s session was not up for grabs.

The National Secular Society and Humanists UK were not happy. Both have long campaigned for the abolition of Parliamentary prayers. They believe they are out of touch with society and point to the current Parliament being the least religious in history because 40 per cent of MPs chose to make a secular affirmation rather than swearing on a holy book.

In fact, I myself chose to affirm rather than swear on the Bible following my re-election last year (due in part to my interpretation of Matthew 5:37), so this should not be taken as an accurate measure of MPs’ personal beliefs.