New Foreign secretary must pledge to protect persecuted Christians, say religious freedom groups

The former foreign secretary, Mr Hunt, who also ran to be prime minister, pledged to enact the recommendations of the Bishop of Truro, Rt Rev Philip Mountstephen, that were made in a report into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) support of those discriminated because of their Christian faith around the world.

Mr Hunt told Premier during the campaign that the first thing he would do as PM would be to work with countries whom Britain already has a diplomatic relationship with, such as Nigeria and India, and encourage them to protect persecuted Christians.

However, Mr Hunt is now neither PM nor foreign secretary and will now be returning to the backbenches, with Dominic Raab taking his place.

With fresh faces in the department, Christian charities are calling on the new arrivals to not let their work on this issue collect dust.

Religious freedom charity Open Doors told Premier they are: “urging the new prime minister, Boris Johnson, to keep his promise to ‘prioritise protecting religious freedoms’ and ‘stand up for those facing persecution’ and Open Doors is calling upon the new foreign secretary, Dominic Raab to carry on the vital work started by his predecessor and implement the recommendations of the report into the persecution of Christians.”

They added that they are pleased that shadow foreign office minister, Liz McInnes asked for the FCO to focus on…