Rosa Prince, Columnist

How Much Does Faith Influence British Politics?

Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Tory leader Kemi Badenoch are both non-believers. That’s a rare shared trait in the country’s political history.

August 12, 2025 at 4:00 AM UTC

By Rosa Prince

Rosa Prince is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering UK politics and policy. She was formerly an editor and writer at Politico and the Daily Telegraph, and is the author of "Comrade Corbyn" and "Theresa May: The Enigmatic Prime Minister."

Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Britain's main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch.
Photographer: AARON CHOWN/AFP

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Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK’s beleaguered opposition Conservative Party, no longer has faith in the existence of a higher power, she told the BBC in an interview last week.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also a non-believer, meaning that perhaps for the first time in British political history, both the nation’s premier and the official leader of the opposition have shared such an attitude toward God.