Teacher Banned for Telling Muslim Students 'Britain Is Still a Christian State'
After the teacher caught the students washing their feet in the bathroom sink, he noted that the King is still the head of the Church of England.
LONDON — A primary school teacher was temporarily barred from working with children after telling Muslim pupils that "Britain is still a Christian state," sparking outrage over the misuse of safeguarding laws to police speech.
The incident began when the unnamed teacher reprimanded Year 6 boys for washing their feet in toilet sinks—a ritual preparation for prayer—at a non-faith school, the Telegraph reports. He explained that prayers were confined to a designated room and, discussing British values of tolerance, noted the UK's Christian heritage, with the King as head of the Church of England. He reportedly suggested dissatisfied pupils could attend a nearby Islamic school.
Three children complained, claiming the teacher shouted and made them feel scared and upset. The school suspended him in March 2024, sacked him for gross misconduct, and referred him to the local safeguarding board and Metropolitan Police for a potential hate crime. The police dropped the inquiry, but the board initially banned him, citing "hurtful comments about Islam" and emotional harm.
The teacher successfully appealed the ban and now works part-time elsewhere. Backed by the Free Speech Union (FSU), he is suing the local authority for unfair dismissal.
FSU director Lord Toby Young condemned the case:
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’s incontestably true. If he’d claimed that Islam is the official religion of England, even though that’s not true, I doubt he would have got into any trouble.
Critics argue safeguarding protocols, created post-Soham murders to protect children from predators, are being weaponized against conservative opinions, raising alarms about free speech erosion in Britain.
Earlier this month, the UOJ reported that King Charles III received an icon from Abp. Nikitas of Thyateira and Great Britain.
