Farage criticised by Church of England’s most senior bishop

Nigel Farage has been accused by the Church of England’s current most senior bishop of an “isolationist, short-term kneejerk” response to the small boats crisis.

Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said the Reform UK leader, who has promised mass deportations, was not offering a solution to the “big issues” driving people to risk the English Channel crossing.

The Reform UK leader has set out plans to remove up to 600,000 people from the country if he forms the next government.

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Deported

The archbishop, the most senior figure in the Church of England in the absence of an archbishop of Canterbury, was asked for his response to people suggesting that arrivals in the UK would get locked up and deported straight away.

“I’d say to them: you haven’t solved the problem,” he told Sky’s Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.

“You’ve just put it somewhere else and you’ve done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country.

“And so if you think that’s the answer, you will discover in due course that all you have done is made the problem worse.”

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'Isolationist'

He said he had “every sympathy with those who find this difficult” but “we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short-term kneejerk ‘send them home’”.

Asked directly whether that was his message to Mr Farage, the archbishop said: “Well, it is. I mean, Mr Farage is saying the things he’s saying, but he is not offering any long-term solution to the big issues which are convulsing our world, which lead to this.”