ONE OF Reform’s latest recruits, Andrew Rosindell MP, seems to have been moved by the opposite of divine inspiration.

Last October Rosindell joined a parliamentary delegation to meet the Pope, who has taken some strong pro-migrant stands. Having spoken of the “great honour and privilege” it was to “meet with His Holiness, Pope Leo XIV,” Rosindell has reflected that honour by rejecting his message — while claiming to be acting for “Christianity.”

Rosindell is basically a Thatcherite, but, like all the Conservatives, has been emphasising increasingly anti-migrant themes, calling for “mass deportations” of “illegal immigrants” while insisting legal immigrants must “respect” British values and “contribute to our economy” or be expelled.

By contrast, last October, in the same month as Rosindell’s visit, Pope Leo said: “In a world darkened by war and injustice, even when all seems lost, migrants and refugees stand as messengers of hope” and their “courage and tenacity” should be rewarded with prayers.

The Pope said migrants and refugees should be “recognised as brothers and sisters” by host communities.

In his traditional Christmas Mass, the Pope reaffirmed this Christian message, saying Jesus in the stable reminds us to treat the poor and outcast with dignity.

Pope Leo said: “While a distorted economy leads us to treat human beings as mere merchandise, God becomes like us, revealing the infinite dignity of every person,” emphasising Christians must make room “for children, for the poor, for the stranger” because “there is no room for God if there is no room for the human person. To refuse one is to refuse the other. Yet, where there is room for the human person, there is room for God.”

Rosindell ignored the Pope’s message, deciding he knew more about the meaning of Christianity, in particular emphasising a kind of exclusionary “Christian nationalism.” Rosindell tweeted a picture of his handshake with the Pope, saying it showed “it is more important than ever that Christian nations around the world unite in faith and fellowship,” rather than reach out to the poor and excluded of any nation.

Publicity for Rosindell’s visit emphasised how much the MP “has long spoken up in Parliament in defence of Britain’s Christian heritage and to uphold the Christian foundation of our nation’s laws, constitution, customs and traditions.” But not apparently, the Pope’s Christian message of embracing the poor, outcast and migrant.

Rosindell’s visit to the Pope was organised by Maurizio Bragagni, a self-publicist Tory donor. Bragagni is boss of Tratos UK, the British arm of a European engineering company owned by his family.

Bragagni and Tratos have given the Tories around £700,000 since 2015.

Bragagni is a relentless self-promoter who enjoys grabbing the limelight with political events. Bragagni also got himself appointed “honorary consul of San Marino to the UK,” a ceremonial representative role for the tiny country (population 34,000) landlocked inside Italy: Bragagni used his San Marino role to take MPs to visit Italy’s other micro-state, the Vatican, with a little financial help from his company Tratos in October, according to the Register of MPs’ Interests.

Bragagni also has very anti-migrant views. In 2022 Bragagni embarrassed the Tories with his outburst about Muslim migrants over-running cities, threatening Europe’s “Judeo-Christian identity.” The Tories are no longer embarrassed by Bragagni as many of their MPs now embrace these views.

The trip had a distinctly right-wing feel. Other delegates included the extremely anti-migrant Rupert “Too Right Wing for Reform” Lowe, alongside Tory Martin Vickers as well as soon-to-defect Andrew Rosindell.

The MPs looked chuffed with their snaps with the Pope, but they seem more interested in their own reactionary view of Christian values than those of the man they were visiting. It’s a sign of the times that when British MPs visit the Pope, he is way to the left of them.