Christianity Today shared an article yesterday which began thus:

The Green Party has responded to claims it wants to disestablish the Church of England by saying that this will “not be a priority” at the next General Election. 

The Daily Mail reported that it had seen the plans in a Green Party policy document stating that the Church would be disestablished and instead become “self-governing” so that future appointments of offices like the Archbishop of Canterbury would be done without involvement from secular government officials. Bishops would also be removed from the House of Lords under the alleged plans. 

Responding to the claims, a Green Party spokesperson said: “As a democratic party our members have determined policy over many years and, like all political parties, revising, updating and determining new policy is an ongoing process. We will set out our detailed plans for government at the time of the next General Election just as we did at the last election.  

“Disestablishing the Church of England will not be a priority. We will instead focus on addressing the real and immediate needs of people and the planet, such as addressing climate breakdown, tackling the cost of living and rebuilding our public services, including the NHS.”

It seems to me that the Greens could pick up the nonconformist vote if they make it a bit more a priority. They might also pick up those inclined to vote for constitutional change, UK republicanism and who are concerned about those with automatic, unelected seats in the Lords. Admittedly, those groups probably have some significant crossover, but nevertheless, there is a set of votes there for the winning and the Greens seem well placed to hoover them up.

Probably won’t please the Christian Nationalist crowd, of course, but you can’t please all the Christians all of the time.