There are 26 Church of England bishops who sit in the House of Lords

Politics and religion should not mix, according to the British public, who want politicians to keep their personal faith to themselves.

A majority of British people believe that religion should also play a less prominent role in parliament, with bishops losing their automatic seats in the House of Lords, a YouGov survey for The Times found.

In the past year, the prime minister, a vicar’s daughter, said that “faith guides me in everything I do”, while Tim Farron, a committed Christian, faced a barrage of questions over whether he believed gay sex to be sinful, as a result of which he felt he had to resign as Lib Dem leader.

The British Social Attitudes Survey found this year that the proportion of Britons professing to