Rwanda bill: Justin Welby preaches to the converted in House of Lords
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, was preaching to the converted.
To a majority of members of the House of Lords, the government’s Rwanda bill is an unholy abomination.
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Last week, their lordships voted by 214 votes to 171, a majority of 43, to delay ratification of the Rwanda treaty until safeguards had been implemented.
And in his speech during the second reading debate on the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill, Mr Welby accused Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of a “pick and choose approach” to international law.
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The archbishop began his speech by telling peers the heart of the Christian tradition was that strangers were welcomed.
“Jesus said ‘I was a stranger and you invited me in’,” he said.
And there were loud cries of “hear, hear!” from around the Lords’ chamber when the archbishop declared: “We can as a nation do better than this bill.”
He went on: “With this bill, the government is continuing to seek good objectives in the wrong way, leading the nation down a damaging path.
“It is damaging for asylum seekers in need of protection and safe and legal routes to be heard.
“It is damaging for this country’s reputation, which it contradicts even as late as last week where the prime minister himself spoke eloquently on the value and importance of international law for this country.”
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Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby speaks in the House of Lords as the Rwanda Bill is debated
No-one could accuse the archbishop of contradicting himself on this issue. He led opposition in the Lords to the Illegal Migration Bill, which resulted in a series of defeats for the government.
He has previously described the Rwanda policy as “against the judgement of God”, and he served notice in this debate that he’s prepared to play a full part in their lordships’ attempts to pull the bill apart in the coming weeks.
He ended his speech by saying that he would not be voting for an amendment proposed by Liberal Democrat peer Lord German to vote down the bill at this point, though he found the argument for it “convincing and powerful”.
Lord German’s amendment, which Labour won’t be supporting either, declines to give the bill a second reading for five reasons:
• It places the UK at risk because it breaches international commitments;
• It undermines the rule of law;
• It will lead to substantial costs to taxpayers;
• It fails to provide safe and legal routes for refugees;
• It fails to include measures to tackle people smuggling gangs.
Without Labour support, the Lib Dem amendment has no chance of being passed.
But, ominously for the government, Mr Welby said he wanted to wait until third reading, after amendments have been made to the bill, before taking a decision on whether or not it should pass.
Mr Sunak has urged peers not to block “the will of the people”.
But the archbishop’s argument, essentially, is that the will of God trumps the will of the people.
And many of their lordships appear to agree.
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The UK economy grew by 0.1% between July and September, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
However, despite the small positive GDP growth recorded in the third quarter, the economy shrank by 0.1% in September, dragging down overall growth for the three month period.
The growth was also slower than what had been expected by experts and a drop from the 0.5% growth between April and June, the ONS said.
Economists polled by Reuters and the Bank of England had forecast an expansion of 0.2%, slowing from the rapid growth seen over the first half of 2024 when the economy was rebounding from last year’s shallow recession.
And the metric that Labour has said it is most focused on – the GDP per capita, or the economic output divided by the number of people in the country – also fell by 0.1%.
Pic: Reuters
Reacting to the figures, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves said: “Am I satisfied with the numbers published today? Of course not. I want growth to be stronger, to come sooner, and also to be felt by families right across the country.”
“It’s why in my Mansion House speech last night, I announced some of the biggest reforms of our pension system in a generation to unlock long term patient capital, up to £80bn to help invest in small businesses and scale up businesses and in the infrastructure needs,” Ms Reeves later told Sky News in an interview.
“We’re four months into this government. There’s a lot more to do to turn around the growth performance of the last decade or so.”
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The sluggish services sector – which makes up the bulk of the British economy – was a particular drag on growth over the past three months. It expanded by 0.1%, cancelling out the 0.8% growth in the construction sector.
The UK’s GDP for the most recent quarter is lower than the 0.7% growth in the US and 0.4% in the Eurozone.
The figures have pushed the UK towards the bottom of the G7 growth table for the third quarter of the year.
It was expected to meet the same 0.2% growth figures reported in Germany and Japan – but fell below that after a slow September.
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The pound remained stable following the news, hovering around $1.267. The FTSE 100, meanwhile, opened the day down by 0.4%.
The Bank of England last week predicted that Ms Reeves’s first budget as chancellor will increase inflation by up to half a percentage point over the next two years, contributing to a slower decline in interest rates than previously thought.
Announcing a widely anticipated 0.25 percentage point cut in the base rate to 4.75%, the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecast that inflation will return “sustainably” to its target of 2% in the first half of 2027, a year later than at its last meeting.
The Bank’s quarterly report found Ms Reeves’s £70bn package of tax and borrowing measures will place upward pressure on prices, as well as delivering a three-quarter point increase to GDP next year.
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