Donald Trump's Christian faith has been questioned by a senior figure in the Church of England as the US President embarks on a three-day state visit to Britain.

The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev Paul Bayes, said the US President's politics were "mistaken", and suggested that Christians who support him are misguided. 

Rather than welcoming Trump, he told BBC Radio 4's Sunday programme that he wanted to "welcome and honour" people planning to turn out on the streets to protest his visit.

"I don't agree with him, I think he's mistaken in many of his policies, and I think that the Christians who identify with him, especially in the US, are not properly responding to what our Christian faith says they should do," he said. 

"I don't think it's right to build walls, I don't think it's right to demonise and hate people, I don't think it's right to divide. And I think this man should be told so, not only by the folks who are in the room with him on this visit but by the folks who will be on the streets outside." 

Bishop Bayes went on to suggest Trump's politics stood in contradiction to Christian values.

"He says he is a Christian but Jesus said you know people by their fruits. And this is a guy who seems to me to be saying walls are good, people from other cultures are bad, we must not welcome people, we must exclude them – I don't believe these are Christian positions," he said. 

Despite his views about Trump, he said America was a "great country" and that it should not be demonised because of its president. 

"I think the free world by definition does not need to be led in an authoritarian way. I think it's true that within the US – which is a great country – there are people who fight for freedom and I'm glad to stand alongside them," he said. 

The bishop added that Trump's comments over the weekend on the Tory leadership contest and how the UK should negotiate with the EU over Brexit were indicative of a kind of "populism" and political style that is "toxic and dangerous". 

"This is a guy who believes in shooting from the hip, he tweets out policies in the middle of the night, he stirs up emotion rather than people looking sensibly and seriously at things that should be done in nations, and he has broken the convention by which people don't stick their noses into the way other countries are doing what they're doing with the political leaders, so I regret that," he said. 

In the past, Bishop Bayes has criticised "self-styled evangelicals" for "uncritically accepting" Trump's policies. 

"Some of the things that have been said by religious leaders seem to collude with a system that marginalises the poor, a system which builds walls instead of bridges, a system which says people on the margins of society should be excluded, a system which says we're not welcoming people any more into our country," he told the Guardian.

"Whenever people say those kinds of things, they need to be able to justify that they're saying those things as Christians, and I do not believe it's justifiable."

Trump has repeatedly courted the faith vote during his presidency and has often been pictured with pastors and other faith leaders in the White House. 

He has been mentored in his faith by megachurch pastor and close friend Paula White, and counts high profile evangelicals like Franklin Graham and Robert Jeffress among his Christian supporters.

He has pleased many evangelicals with his support for religious freedom and the rights of the unborn in the face of legislative attempts to loosen abortion restrictions across the US. 

At this year's National Prayer Breakfast, Trump told an audience of faith leaders that his administration was committed to protecting freedom of worship and the sanctity of life. 

"I will never let you down - never," he told them.