(Photo: Getty/iStock)Britain’s new Prime Minister Andy Burnham is being urged to defend Christian freedoms amid concerns that existing and proposed laws are restricting the public expression of religious beliefs. Ciarán Kelly, director of The Christian Institute, said the treatment of Christians under abortion buffer zone legislation and the threat posed by a proposed conversion therapy ban would be a defining test of the new government. He cited in particular the controversial abortion buffer zone laws, as well as additional guidance on those laws issued by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Northern Ireland has already seen one high-profile case in which a retired pastor was convicted of breaching buffer zone laws by delivering an open-air sermon. Christian free speech is not only inhibited by buffer zone laws, but by a proposed ban on conversion therapy.