Leaders of numerous English faith communities wrote to the Prime Minister on Tuesday challenging a ban on public worship as having ‘no scientific justification’.

The letter protesting the ban on public worship was signed by Justin Welby, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, and other Anglican leaders, Catholic Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster, as well as representatives of Pentecostal Protestant, Jewish, Sikh, Muslim, and Hindu communities.

“We have demonstrated, by our action, that places of worship and public worship can be made safe from Covid transmission. Given the significant work we have already done, we consider there to be, now, no scientific justification for the wholesale suspension of public worship,” read the letter to Boris Johnson.

They added that “the scientific evidence shows that social solidarity and connectedness are key to people maintaining motivation to comply with COVID secure measures and to maintain good mental health. And there is good scientific evidence of the importance of faith and faith communities for positive mental health and coping, especially for Black Asian and Minority Ethnic people.”