Photo above – Boris Johnson has been strongly criticised over the tone of his language in the heated Brexit debate
The Archbishop of Canterbury has issued a rebuke to Boris Johnson, warning the prime minister that the use of “inflammatory” language risks pouring “petrol” on Britain’s divisions over Brexit.
In an exclusive interview with The Sunday Times, Justin Welby said Britain had become consumed by “an abusive and binary approach to political decisions” in which Brexit rivals treated their opponents as “my total enemy”.
The archbishop warned that social media meant it had become “extraordinarily dangerous to use careless comments” in a society that was “polarised and volatile”. He was “shocked” by Johnson’s recent dismissal of warnings about extreme language encouraging death threats against politicians as “humbug”.
Welby’s intervention comes as two cabinet ministers revealed that at Thursday’s cabinet meeting Johnson launched an outspoken attack on Labour MPs refusing to back his plans for a general election. “There they are sitting on their arses, luxuriating in their salaries,” he said.
Unveiling plans to hold a vote on an election each day from Monday to Thursday, Johnson promised to implement a “battering-ram strategy” to force Labour’s hand. “We will hammer them day after day after day,” he pledged.
Johnson’s closest aide, Dominic Cummings, ordered ministerial aides on Friday night to devise “content” for a social media election blitz that is likely to raise the political temperature further.
In a fresh attack on MPs yesterday, Johnson accused parliament of “hold[ing] the country hostage” and claimed that Labour would “snarl us in further toxic debate”.
His combative approach appeared to be working when a new Opinium poll put the Tories on 40%, 16 points clear of Labour on 24%, with the Liberal Democrats on 15% and the Brexit Party on 10%.
Welby said his criticisms were not confined to Johnson and his government but made clear he considered the prime minister partly to blame for the fact society had become “quite broken”.
Asked directly about Johnson’s “humbug” comment when he was urged to moderate his language by an MP who had allegedly endured death threats, Welby said: “I was shocked by that . . . It should never be dismissed in that way. Death threats are really serious and they need to be taken seriously. All sides need to say, ‘That is totally and utterly unacceptable.’”
In a pointed intervention, Welby said political leaders could no longer behave in the same way as Winston Churchill, Johnson’s hero.
“Churchill was well known for his somewhat inflammatory putdowns in parliament,” he said. “But this is happening at a time when we have social media, which amplifies things. In a time of deep uncertainty, a much smaller amount of petrol is a much more dangerous thing than it was in a time when people were secure. There is a great danger to doing it when we’re already in a very polarised and volatile situation.”
Welby was speaking in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where he has been highlighting the plight of people affected by an ebola outbreak. He warned that extreme language in politics was fuelling hate crime.
“I think we have become addicted to an abusive and binary approach to political decisions: ‘It’s either this or you’re my total enemy.’ There have been inflammatory words used on all sides, in parliament and outside — ‘traitor’, ‘fascist’, all kinds of really bad things have been said at the highest level in politics.”
Citing the debate in which the prime minister used the word “humbug”, Welby added: “It wasn’t only Boris Johnson. Nor was it only the Conservatives. There were a great deal of really difficult things, really bad things being said.
“Within an environment where we’ve seen the biggest rise in hate crime, and particularly anti- Semitic crime and Islamophobic crime … the amplification given by social media makes it extraordinarily dangerous to use careless comments.”
Welby said action was needed to heal divisions “at almost every level of society, including the political level of society”. He added: “I don’t only blame government. I think we are quite broken.”
The archbishop risked the charge of meddling in politics by warning that a no-deal Brexit would be “morally unacceptable” if it hurt the poor. “You cannot take risks with the weakest and most vulnerable in the society. If people are absolutely certain that a no-deal Brexit can be done and work well, and if they decide that if things go wrong it’s borne by the strongest, then that’s a political decision on which I shouldn’t comment.
“But if there’s a level of risk, to put the risk on those who are already the most vulnerable is simply morally unacceptable.”
Welby said a large number of MPs and peers had been driven to “the end of their tether” by the Brexit process and approached him for guidance. “They can’t work out how to act,” he said. “They’ve been members of their particular party for . . . [decades and] hate the idea of voting against their own whip on both sides. They don’t know what to do. The stress is enormous. And they’re being threatened a great deal and they’re finding age-old friendships breaking down.”
Downing Street declined to comment.
Report in The Sunday Times
[[] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/archbishop-of-canterbury-tells-boris-johnson-youre-pouring-petrol-on-divided-britain-ftfjwpjx8 ]
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