The Most Rev Justin Welby accused the Government of outsourcing the country’s ‘legal and moral responsibilities’.
Rishi Sunak’s proposed Rwanda asylum law has cleared its first major hurdle in the House of Lords, but faces a bruising ride as the Archbishop of Canterbury warned it is “leading the nation down a damaging path”.
In a withering rebuke to the scheme to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali, the Most Rev Justin Welby accused the Government of outsourcing the country’s “legal and moral responsibilities” and signalled he may yet seek to block it.
The top Anglican cleric also argued “a pick-and-choose approach to international law” undermined the UK’s global standing.
A barrage of criticism was levelled at the Government’s Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, during its lengthy second reading debate in the upper chamber, with accusations that it was immoral, repugnant and an attempt to “legislate a lie”.
It even saw Tory grandee Ken Clarke warn over the risks of moving the UK towards an “elective dictatorship”.
But ministers argued that the Bill was “the moral course” and “the humane thing to do”.
The controversial draft legislation seeks to address the legal challenges which have dogged the stalled policy by compelling judges to regard the east African country as safe, while giving ministers the power to ignore emergency injunctions.
While the Bill survived a Liberal Democrat-led bid to derail it, the unelected chamber is certain to seek numerous changes, putting them on a collision course with the Tory administration and an extended tussle between the Commons and Lords during “ping-pong”.
The Prime Minister has warned peers against blocking “the will of the people” by frustrating the passage of the legislation ahead of an election, having made “stopping the boats” a key pledge of his leadership.
