PA
A Conservative MP claimed that deporting asylum seekers to Rwanda is what people wanted when they voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
Jonathan Gullis, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, backed Priti Patel in parliament yesterday as the home secretary faced criticism over her new controversial plans.
He urged ministers to ignore the “North Islington wokerati” and press ahead with the project, despite serious ethical questions being raised.
Gullis claimed that it was what people voted for when they voted Brexit, much to the bemusement of MPs on the opposition benches and, indeed, some around him.
Writing a joint article in The Times with Rwandan foreign minister Vincent Biruta, Patel has defended her plans and reiterated that they were “bold and innovative” after religious leaders slammed the move.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby deemed the plans ungodly, while his counterpart in York also used his Easter sermon to deride the idea as “so depressing and distressing”.
But in the joint article, Ms Patel and Mr Biruta said: “We are taking bold and innovative steps and it’s surprising that those institutions that criticise the plans fail to offer their own solutions.”
Earlier, Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg had suggested that the Archbishop of Canterbury had misunderstood the aims of the policy.
Mr Welby said there are “serious ethical questions about sending asylum seekers overseas”.
He said: “The details are for politics. The principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot. It cannot carry the weight of resurrection justice, of life conquering death. It cannot carry the weight of the resurrection that was first to the least valued, for it privileges the rich and strong.”
He was joined in his criticism by the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, who said: “We can do better than this.”
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