James Orr is Associate Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Cambridge University's Faculty of Divinity and Head of Policy for Reform UK, having been appointed Senior Adviser to Nigel Farage in October 2025 before taking up the Head of Policy role in February 2026. A self-described former "functional atheist", he rediscovered Christianity via the Alpha course at Holy Trinity Brompton and says his politics "followed" from that conversion. Before joining Reform he chaired the advisory board of Centre for a Better Britain. Orr and US Vice President J.D. Vance have reportedly been friends since 2019; Vance has described Orr as his "British sherpa". Orr has criticised "the so-called rainbow people — hyper-liberal sexual progressives pushing identity politics", described the 1967 Abortion Act as having "sanctioned the killing of 10 million innocents", described asylum seekers crossing the Channel as "invaders", and dismissed Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "a regional Slavic conflict". In January 2026, he hosted Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel at Cambridge for a series of "Antichrist Lectures". Critics have raised concerns about conflicts of interest between his Cambridge role - through which he teaches hundreds of students - and his active recruitment of "allies" in academia for Reform.

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