A Church of England rector has accused the Green Party of starting a culture war over its policy to separate the Church from the State.

Speaking on GB News, Rev Marcus Walker said: “It’s rather funny, isn’t it? You’d think if the Green Party actually was an environmentalist party and were preparing to come into government with perhaps some sort of enormous programme of environmental laws that they needed to get everybody on side for, they’d be trying to rally everybody around.

“But instead, they’ve decided to start a culture war and kick the church that’s probably their closest ally.

“It rather suggests less that they’re trying to connect with any other particular faith group, and more that they’re sort of student politicians.

“One of the interesting things is that the establishment of the Church of England is backed by almost every other faith community in England; that only the Buddhists have actually ever called for the C of E to be disestablished.

“For the rest, the idea of a kind of hard left, or maybe French style secularism, is as far from what any other faith wants.

“And with the Church of England being, well, you could say sort of a cuddly and fluffy version of any form of religion, a body that tries quite hard to incorporate other denominations and other faiths in the national life, most other people of other faiths are quite keen to keep that going.

“So I suspect that the hard left side of the Green Party hasn’t spoken to perhaps the Muslim side of the Green Party.

“Much as I personally may not agree with a lot of the agenda that a lot of people in the Church of England run with, they’re doing it out of profound Christian sentiment. They’re not wanting people not to hit them.

“I think an awful lot of people, out of very, very deep Christian convictions, would agree with the Greens on the climate change agenda, would agree with an awful lot of the left on questions of migration.

“They’re doing it out of profound Christian beliefs. The fact that they may not find natural allies in that corner of the country is a different point.”