Seek to protect those persecuted for their faith

Our verdict

• This is a promise to attempt to prevent harm or injury to people targeted by others because of their faith.
• Since the election, the government claims to have acted on 17 of the 22 recommendations from the independent Truro Review into support for persecuted Christians, and has joined the International Religious Freedom Alliance established by the US government. The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy, published in March 2021, also lists promotion of freedom of religion or belief as one of the government’s priority actions and commits to hosting an international ministerial conference on the issue in 2022. In April 2021, a motion passed by the Church of England’s General Synod called on the government to fully implement the Truro Review recommendations and strengthen its commitment to this policy objective. The Bishop of Leeds, who moved the motion, pointed to government cuts to overseas aid (ODA) as evidence of “the hollowness of manifesto commitments”.
• Support for freedom of religious belief is a wide-reaching and never-ending objective, and although there is evidence that the government continues to make at least limited efforts in this area, that is tempered by the fact of cuts to ODA and the failure to fully implement the Truro Review recommendations.  At present, this policy is ‘in progress’.