Britain should “actively resist” the “Kneejerk” reform plans to deport all migrants, according to the head of the Church of England.
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has criticised the right-wing party’s new proposals to solve the migrant crisis by taking in 600,000 migrants over five years, saying the plan does not solve long-term problems.
He said: “You haven’t solved the problem, you’ve just put it somewhere else and done nothing to make progress on the issue of what brings people to this country.
“You think that’s the answer? You’ll discover in time that all you’ve done is make the problem worse.”
Speaking to Sky News, he said: “Don’t get me wrong, I have every sympathy for those who are finding it difficult, every sympathy, just as I have for those living in poverty.
“But I think we should actively resist the short-term path of ‘sending them home’.”
Asked if that was his message to reform leader Nigel Farage, he said: “That is it. Mr Farage says the things he says, but he offers no long-term solution to the issues that are our world and driving it.
“I don’t see any other way.”
Instead, he called for a “holistic and international vision” to deal with mass migration.
But Farage’s deputy, Richard Tice, rejected this criticism, speaking to Sky News on Sunday.
He said: “The role of the archbishop is not to interfere in international migration policy, which is determined by the government.”
Presenter Trevor Phillips responded: “Don’t governments have some responsibility to demonstrate moral behavior, or is it just a business transaction that’s in government?”
“It’s a little bit of both,” said Tice, “it’s not either or.
He argued that removing migrants would ease the housing market and the job market.
This debate comes as anti-Asylum protests escalate in the UK, with both pro and anti-immigration protests taking place across the country over the weekend.
Police made five arrests in west London on Saturday after a group of masked anti-Asylum demonstrators tried to break into a hotel housing migrants.
This comes after the Court of Appeal overturned an interim order that would have blocked the Bell Hotel from accommodating asylum seekers.
