Boris Johnson stands by attack on Church of England over immigration

Prime minister was urged by Keir Starmer to apologise

Boris Johnson has stood by his attack on the Church of England after its top clergyman criticised his immigration policy.

The Archbishop of Canterbury criticised the prime minister’s plan to deport refugees to Rwanda in a sermon on Easter Sunday, warning that it could not “stand the judgement of God”.

But at a private meeting of Tory MPs on Tuesday afternoon Mr Johnson tried to deflect the criticism by claiming the clergy had been been somehow soft on criticising the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The attack was branded a “disgraceful slur” by Lambeth Palace on Thursday evening – which pointed to statements by Justin Welby and others condemning the invasion in the strongest terms.

But on Wednesday in parliament the prime minister declined to apologise when challenged over his apparently false claim.

Labour Leader Keir Starmer asked the PM whether he would “take this opportunity to apologise for slandering the Archbishop and the Church of England”.

But the prime minister replied: “I was slightly taken aback for the government to be criticised over the policy that we have devised to end the deaths at sea in the Channel as a result of cruel criminal gangs.

“I was surprised that we were attacked for that – and it turns out, do you know who proposed that policy in 2004? It was David Blunkett, who said it was a 21st-century solution to the problems of illegal asylum-seeking and immigration.”

But Sir Keir hit back, asking later in the session: “How can the prime minister claim to be a patriot when he deliberately attacks and degrades the institution of our great country?”

He said the prime minister appeared comfortable “slandering people in a private room” without “the backbone to repeat it in public”.

The government’s policy will see refugees arriving in Britain relocated to Rwanda, which has a poor human rights record and which the UK has granted people asylum from as recently as last year.