Mosques are being encouraged to draw inspiration from church choirs as part of a drive to develop a distinctively “English” brand of Islam led by the former Conservative Party chairman Baroness Warsi.

Muslim devotional verse and music could be adapted to sound similar to hymns sung in parish churches, drawing from the centuries-old traditions of English choral music, it has been suggested.

The idea is among a series of proposals being discussed at a “very English” tea party in Surrey hosted by Lady Warsi and organised by the think-tank British Future.