❓WHAT HAPPENED: A London primary (elementary) school teacher was banned from working with children after telling a Muslim student that Britain is a “Christian state.”
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The teacher, the Free Speech Union, the Metropolitan Police, and the local safeguarding board.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The incident occurred in London, with the teacher being suspended in March 2024 and dismissed in February 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “This teacher lost his job and almost ended up being barred from the profession for life just because he pointed out to a class of Muslim schoolchildren that the national religion of England is Anglicanism.” – Lord Toby Young
🎯IMPACT: The teacher successfully appealed the ban and now works part-time, but his career has been significantly derailed.
A London primary (elementary) school teacher was dismissed after telling a Muslim pupil that Britain is a Christian country. The teacher made the remark while enforcing the school’s policy that Islamic religious activities at the non-faith school be confined to a designated prayer room. He reportedly explained to a group of students that, because the King is the head of the Church of England, “Britain is still a Christian state,” and also suggested that students seeking additional accommodations for Islamic practices could consider a nearby Islamic school.
The situation began when the teacher found several boys washing their feet in the bathroom sinks. When he addressed them, he spoke about British values of tolerance, although he reiterated that “Britain is still a Christian state.” The comments triggered a safeguarding review, despite being literally true, with the King’s coronation oath including a vow to “maintain the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel” and the House of Lords including Anglican bishops, among other constitutional provisions enshrining Christianity as the state religion.
The local safeguarding board concluded that the remarks had caused “emotional harm” to the child involved. London’s Metropolitan Police initially had its child abuse team examine the incident as a possible hate crime, although the inquiry was eventually dropped. The teacher was suspended in March 2024, and by February 2025, he had been dismissed for gross misconduct.
With assistance from the Free Speech Union, the teacher is now taking legal action against the local authority. Lord Toby Young, the organisation’s director, said, “This teacher lost his job and almost ended up being barred from the profession for life just because he pointed out to a class of Muslim schoolchildren that the national religion of England is Anglicanism.”
“Things have reached a pretty pass in this country if a teacher can be branded a safeguarding risk because he says something that is incontestably true,” he added.
Recent data indicates that Christianity in Britain is undergoing significant changes, particularly among younger generations. According to research, an increasing number of young adults are returning to church, and among Christians, more now identify with the Roman Catholic Church than with the Anglican Church of England. Attendance among 18 to 24-year-olds has risen sharply, with Catholic parishes in particular seeing notable growth.
Image via the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office.
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