UK Urged To Resist Reform's 'Kneejerk Send Them Home' Plans For Migrants

The UK should “actively resist” Reform’s “kneejerk” plans to deport all migrants, according to the acting head of the Church of England.

The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, criticised the right-wing party’s new proposals to solve the migrant crisis through deporting 600,000 migrants over five years, saying this plan does not fix any long-term issues.

He said: “You haven’t solved the problem, you’ve just put it somewhere else, and done nothing to progress the issue of what brings people to this country.

“You think that’s the answer? You will discover, in due course, that all you have done is make the problem worse.”

Speaking to Sky News, he said: “Don’t misunderstand me, I have every sympathy with those who find this difficult, every sympathy, as I do with those living in poverty.

“But I think we should actively resist the short-term, kneejerk, ‘send them home’.”

Asked if that was his message to Reform’s leader Nigel Farage, he said: “It is. Mr Farage is saying the things that he is saying, but he is not offering any long-term solution to the issues which are convulsing our world and leading this.

“I see no other way.”

But Farage’s deputy Richard Tice dismissed these criticisms when speaking to Sky News on Sunday.

He said: “The role of the Archbishop is not to interfere with international migration policies that is determined by the government.”

Presenter Trevor Phillips replied: “Don’t governments have some responsibility to demonstrate moral behaviour or is it just a business transaction, being in government?”

“It’s a bit of both,” Tice said, “It’s not an either or or. But the role of government is to make people better off, to improve our public services and improve access to housing.”

He claimed removing migrants would ease the housing market and the labour market.

This debate comes as anti-asylum protests in the UK escalate, with both pro and anti-immigration protests took places 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 enter a hotel housing migrants.

It comes after the Court of Appeal overturned a temporary injunction which would have blocked the Bell Hotel in Epping from accommodating asylum seekers.