The prime minister has said that using the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy to ban a college Christian Union is “ludicrous”. He was responding to a question in the House of Commons last Wednesday from Fiona Bruce MP. Mrs Bruce mentioned reports that Prevent had been used to stop a Christian Union at an unnamed further education college from holding prayer and Bible study meetings. David Cameron said: “The point she [Mrs Bruce] makes about the Prevent duty being misused, I haven’t heard of that exact example, but it’s clearly ludicrous and people do need to exercise some common sense in making these judgments as it’s quite clearly not what was intended.” The Prevent strategy was brought in by the Government last autumn to tackle extremism at universities and colleges. The 2014 consultation document mentioned Islamic extremism and the “far Right”, but it said nothing about Christians being targeted. Toni Coulton, director of Festive, which supports Christians in further education and sixth-form colleges, said: “Senior management were not happy to have Christians meeting for prayer and fellowship and the reason they gave was because of the Prevent initiative.” Mrs Coulton said there had been no complaints of inappropriate behaviour by the Christian Union. Simon McCrossan, head of public policy at the Evangelical Alliance, called for more common sense in government decision-making. He said: “We all have to play our part in tackling terrorism and violent extremism, but common sense is exactly what is needed by the Government. Churches and Christian groups play a vital and valued role in every part of our plural society. The Government needs to act to encourage this rather than put it at risk. “It’s time for them to abandon proposals to register and inspect Sunday schools, and recognise their proposals do more to squash religious liberty than protect our country. It’s ludicrous to think that inspecting church settings is the answer to tackling terrorism, and we look forward to more common sense from David Cameron when the Bill is published.” Cardinal Vincent Nichols said in March that the Prevent strategy risked doing serious damage. The cardinal said: “There is no doubt that the threat of active terror is real ... But my impression is that we are at a very delicate point at which the defining of extremism could go quite seriously wrong.” In May the Bishops of England and Wales said that counter-extremism legislation must be introduced with “careful consideration”, in order not to damage free speech or alienate minorities. The statement from the bishops’ conference came after the Queen’s Speech, in which the Government announced a Counter-Extremism and Safeguarding Bill. The Bill promises “a new civil order regime to restrict extremist activity, following consultation”. In the Commons the Prime Minister also told Mrs Bruce that he would not be able to attend the annual parliamentary prayer breakfast at Westminster Hall this week. He said he was “very sorry” and that it was a “very good event”.