Yesterday, Luke attended the launch of the Open Doors report on the persecution of Christians abroad. A large number of people from Plymouth had written to Luke asking for him to attend this event.

The Open Doors report found that persecution of Christians abroad is getting worst. It found that one in eight Christians face persecution because of their faith around the world. There are now 260 million Christians living in countries on the World Watch List Top 50 countries where Christians are at risk of high, very high or extreme levels of persecution. This is up from 245million in 2019.

The event held in Parliament heard from religious leaders from around the world who shared their own personal stories of persecution because of their belief.

Luke said:

“Whatever your faith, background, sexuality or gender you should be free to live your life free from persecution. As Plymouth’s first ever openly gay MP I recognise that discrimination and abuse comes in all different forms. It is our diversity that makes us all special and I was concerned to hear of the stories of persecution of Christians abroad simply because of their faith. In 2020 more and more people around the world are living in fear of attack because of who they are and what they believe in. Although not particularly religious myself, I believe that everyone should have the right to worship free from abuse, discrimination or persecution. I am grateful to those people from Plymouth who asked me to attend this event. Hate is on the rise, not just in Britain, but around the world and we can all do our bit to fight it. Share more, listen more, build bridges not walls and value our diversity – that is the bedrock of every world religion and those values are worth reinforcing in these troubling times.”

You can read the report from Open Doors online here