What are the chances of a British Pope? These are the UK cardinals going to Rome
With the death of Pope Francis, cardinals from around the world will soon gather in the Vatican to choose a new pontiff. Francis, of course, hailed from Argentina – but could the next pope be British?
It’s been 866 years since the papacy of Britain’s only ever pontiff (Pope Adrian IV) ended in 1159, and the history of the Catholic Church in the UK since then has been turbulent, with King Henry VIII perhaps the main culprit.
There are currently four British cardinals, three of whom are young enough to vote in the conclave.
And while none of them are considered odds-on favourites for the top job, it’s true that surprises do happen behind the shuttered doors of the secretive congregation of cardinals.
So who are the British cardinals, and could one of them be the next pope?
Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Pic: PA
Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, 79
Born in Crosby near Liverpool, as a child Cardinal Vincent Nichols hoped to be a lorry driver but as a teenager reportedly felt the calling to join the priesthood while watching Liverpool FC.
He has served as the Archbishop of Westminster since 2009, the most senior position in the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Before that he was the Archbishop of Birmingham.
As cardinal, he is known for leading the church’s work tackling human trafficking and modern slavery, for which he received the UN Path to Peace Award.
He was criticised by the UK’s Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which said he “demonstrated a lack of understanding” of the impact of abuse and “seemingly put the reputation of the church first”.
Cardinal Nichols, responding to the findings, told Sky News he was “ashamed at what has happened in the context of the Catholic Church” and promised to improve the church’s response.
“He has quite a reputation,” says religious historian and writer Catherine Pepinster. “But I don’t think anybody has suggested he should be made pope.”
He himself has appeared to rule himself out of the running as well, telling reporters he was “too old, not capable”.
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Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe. Pic: PA
The Francis ally
Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, 79
Born in London in 1945, Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe entered the Dominican Order of preachers in 1965 and was ordained as a priest in 1971.
As Master of the Dominican Order – the first Englishman in its 800-year history – he was popular for his speeches around the monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in the modern world.
He was appointed cardinal just last year, on 7 December 2024, and is viewed as an ally of Pope Francis who could vote for a candidate who would continue his work.
He’s a popular figure, says Michael Walsh, an expert on Catholic issues, but his age likely rules him out from serious consideration, he added.
“Timothy Radcliffe is an interesting one,” says Ms Pepinster. “There are a lot of people who listen to what he says.
“He has a reputation for speaking very well so possibly (he could be considered), but he’s nearly 80.”
Like Cardinal Nichols, however, Cardinal Radcliffe appears to have confirmed he does not want the job, telling reporters he believed the Holy Spirit was “far too wise to even think of me (as pope) for the shortest moment”.
Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald. Pic: Pierpaolo Scavuzzo/AGF/Shutterstock
The diplomat
Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, 87
Made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2019, Michael Fitzgerald has been one of the leading experts on Christian-Muslim relations and served as one of the Catholic Church’s delegates to the Arab League of nations.
His ministry saw him spend time in Africa and he was appointed titular archbishop of Nepte in Tunisia.
He is known for engaging with other faiths and wrote a booklet to help Catholics understand and support Muslims during Ramadan.
He also served as apostolic nuncio to Egypt, a diplomatic role similar to an ambassador.
At 87, he is too old to vote for the next pope but can still play a key role behind the scenes in discussions before the conclave starts.
It’s also not technically impossible for him to be elected pontiff himself, despite being too old to cast his own vote, though it isn’t likely.
Cardinal Arthur Roche. Pic: Evandro Inetti/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
The Vatican insider
Cardinal Arthur Roche, 75
Born in West Yorkshire in 1950, Cardinal Arthur Roche was ordained a priest at the age of 25 in the Diocese of Leeds.
Within the church, some have regarded him as a cleric who was being fast-tracked to hold high office.
His time as Bishop of Leeds was not without controversy, both for liturgical reasons and also for his programme of closures and mergers of churches in his diocese.
He has held various posts in the Vatican and was made an Archbishop by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, before being made a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022.
Dr Walsh says that Cardinal Roche isn’t viewed as a “significant character”, while Ms Pepinster suggested that his tenure as a Vatican official could work against him when it comes to cardinals coming in from all over the world.
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A British pope? Maybe not this time
“I don’t think there’s anything against having an English pope at all,” says Mr Walsh, when asked how Britain was viewed generally.
But with all four British cardinals now 75 or older, age may make them unlikely candidates to be pope, he said.
“I think they will look for someone younger,” he added.
There’s also a growing consensus that, like with Francis, the next pope should come from beyond Europe, Ms Pepinster added.
Many believe that, as the Church has expanded beyond its Catholic heartlands, the next pope should come from elsewhere.
However, Sky News understands there are whispers around the Vatican that suggest the next pope will indeed be from Europe, and likely from Italy.
Asked about the next pope, Cardinal Radcliffe said: “I think that we always open ourselves to be surprised. All recent popes have been quite different from each other.”
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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