A senior Church of England bishop has criticised Donald Trump, questioning whether he is a Christian, and backed protesters who plan to demonstrate against the US president’s state visit to the UK, which starts on Monday.

Paul Bayes, the bishop of Liverpool, said Trump’s populist way of doing politics was “toxic and dangerous”. He said: “I don’t agree with him, I think he’s mistaken in many of his policies, and I think that the Christians who identify with him, especially in the US, are not properly responding to what our Christian faith says they should do.”

Bayes told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme: “I don’t think it’s right to build walls, I don’t think it’s right to demonise and hate people, I don’t think it’s right to divide. And I think this man should be told so, not only by the folks who are in the room with him on this visit but by the folks who will be on the streets outside.

“He says he is a Christian but Jesus said you know people by their fruits. And this is a guy who seems to me to be saying walls are good, people from other cultures are bad, we must not welcome people, we must exclude them – I don’t believe these are Christian positions.”

Q&A Itinerary: What will Trump be doing during his UK state visit? Show After arriving in the UK on Air Force One on Monday 3 June, US president Donald Trump will be formally welcomed in a ceremony in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It will be attended by the Queen and Prince Charles. The president will then attend a private lunch at the palace, which is expected to be attended by Prince Harry, but not his wife, who Trump recently described as 'nasty'. Following a wreath-laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey, Donald Trump will join Prince Charles for an afternoon tea at Clarence House. The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince Harry will then host a state banquet in the evening, which will be attended by prominent US citizens who live in the UK, as well as political and civic leaders. On Tuesday 4 June the visit includes a breakfast meeting with Prince Andrew, and then talks and a press conference with prime minister Theresa May at Downing Street. On the Tuesday evening Trump hosts a dinner at the residence of the US ambassador. On Wednesday 5 June Trump will take part in commemoration services in Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The day ends with the Queen formally bidding farewell to the US president. Trump’s entourage will also include two identical seven-seat black armoured limousines nicknamed ‘The Beast’, and a number of presidential helicopters. The president has at his side at all times one of five rotating military aides who carry the nuclear ‘football’ which can trigger a missile strike - equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/X90178

Bayes said he was not comfortable with Trump being described as leader of the free world. “I think the free world by definition does not need to be led in an authoritarian way. I think it’s true that within the US – which is a great country – there are people who fight for freedom and I’m glad to stand alongside them.

“I don’t think we should demonise the country, but I do think that if people are talking about freedom then for a start we should have the proper freedom to protest, so I welcome and honour those who will be out on the streets protesting [at] Donald Trump’s visit, protesting [over] the things he stands for.”

He said the president’s interventions over the weekend on the way the UK should handle Brexit negotiations and the merits of Conservative leadership candidates was indicative of his style.

“I think what it represents is a way of doing politics which I frankly believe is toxic and dangerous, namely the way that is sometimes honoured with the word populism. This is a guy who believes in shooting from the hip, he tweets out policies in the middle of the night, he stirs up emotion rather than people looking sensibly and seriously at things that should be done in nations, and he has broken the convention by which people don’t stick their noses into the way other countries are doing what they’re doing with the political leaders, so I regret that.”

Bayes has previously criticised evangelical Christian leaders in the US who have offered full-throated support to Trump, saying there was no justification for Christians contradicting God’s teaching to protect the poor and the weak.