The Archbishop of Canterbury has been accused by the Home Secretary of aiding “evil” gangs by opposing the Rwanda deportation plan.
James Cleverly has slammed Justin Welby for his fierce opposition to the scheme, which will see illegal migrants flown to the African nation.
Welby has frequently critiqued the plan, telling the House of Lords last week that the Government was “leading the nation down a damaging path”.
He also said that the Bill is “damaging for asylum seekers in need of protection” and accused the Government of “outsourcing our legal and moral responsibilities for refugees and asylum seekers”.
James Cleverly slammed critics of the Rwanda plan, including Justin Welby, for helping 'evil' people smuggling gangs
PA
However, the Home Secretary said that there is “nothing honourable or righteous” about trying to block the scheme without offering a credible alternative.
He said that people will continue to die whilst undertaking the perilous journey across the channel unless action is taken.
Speaking to The Sun, he said: “These are people smugglers. These are criminals. They are perpetrating an evil. Bishops talk about good and evil, and we have got to do something about it.
“For those people who are attempting to block the Rwanda Bill going through the House, unless they are able to put forward some credible alternative as a deterrent, they should let me deploy this to deter people from making this crossing and to break the business model of these people smuggling gangs.”
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Welby has frequently critiqued the plan, telling the House of Lords last week that the Government was 'leading the nation down a damaging path'
PAHe challenged his critics to come up with a different plan to deal with the influx of border crossings, adding: “There is nothing honourable, there is nothing righteous, about removing one of the tools to break criminality.”
The Rwanda Bill breezed past its second House of Lords reading last week, with peers voting with a majority of 122 - 206 to 84.
Prior to the reading, a Liberal Democrat-sponsored bid to halt the Bill was rejected.
Alongside Welby, Ken Clarke, a Conservative former chancellor and former lord chancellor, announced he could not support the new bill.
He has told peers that, while he supported the government’s last Rwanda bill, he cannot support the new one because overturning a supreme court judgment is a “very dangerous constitutional provision”.
The Prime Minister had warned peers against blocking “the will of the people” by frustrating the passage of the legislation ahead of an election, urging them to swiftly pass his bill.
Home Office minister Lord Sharpe of Epsom said: “Stopping illegal migration is an important issue for both the public and this Government. Parliament and the British people want an end to illegal migration and therefore we need a deterrent.
James Cleverly challenged his critics to come up with an alternative
PA“The Archbishop of Canterbury and other members were right to place this Bill in its moral context but proceeding with this Bill is the moral course.
“We must put a stop to the dangerous Channel crossings that are putting lives at risk and we must put an end to this mass trafficking of people to save lives. That is the humane thing to do and it is the fair thing to do.”
The bill passed through the House of Commons last month, with 320 MPs voting through Rishi Sunak’s proposed legislation in its third reading.
However, the bill was not without its critics, with former Home Secretary Suella Braverman and ex-Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick voting against the Safety of Rwanda Bill.
The latest figures from the Home Office revealed 1,335 migrants crossed the Channel in small boats in January, a 13 per cent increase compared with the same month last year.
A total of 29,437 people arrived on British shores in small boats in 2023.