The decision to reinstate a Christian nurse suspended for offering to pray for a patient was “common sense”, says Communities Secretary Hazel Blears.

Speaking on the BBC’s Today Programme, Ms Blears welcomed Caroline Petrie’s reinstatement.

“If you look at the issue with the nurse, I am delighted that common sense prevailed, she is back at work. She wasn’t going to impose prayer on people, she just said ‘would you like me to’ and common sense has prevailed in that case,” she said.

In a speech at the London School of Economics last night, Ms Blears called for greater openness.

"What I don't want to see happen is because people are frightened of an over-reaction they don't raise the issue," she said. "What I don't want people to say is that Muslims will be offended by Christmas, because they are not. There is this presumption that we don't do things because people will be offended."

Ms Blears said that the Government must challenge views and practices that contradict its core values as she warned that practices like forced marriage and female genital mutilation were being left unaddressed because of a fear of offending “cultural sensitivities”.

"There is a need for moral clarity, a dividing line rooted in our overriding sense of what is right and wrong,” she said.