Of the Christian convert, she said: ‘I did initially try to discourage her. I offered her alternatives.

‘I offered to find places for her to practise her own religion. I offered to take her to friends and family.

‘But she said to me from the word go, ‘I am interested and I want to come.’ She sort of burst in.’

The woman said it had never occurred to her that she would be axed from the register.

The move has stripped her of her sole source of income, forcing her to downsize to a one-bedroom flat.