Rwanda asylum plan ‘leading nation down a damaging path’, warns Archbishop

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda deportation plan is “leading the nation down a damaging path”, the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

In a withering rebuke to the scheme to send asylum seekers who cross the Channel in small boats on a one-way flight to Kigali, the Most Rev Justin Welby accused the Government of outsourcing the country’s “legal and moral responsibilities”.

The top Anglican cleric also argued “a pick-and-choose approach to international law” undermined the UK’s global standing as he signalled he may seek to block the policy at a later date.