Acting head of the Church of England blasts Nigel Farage's 'kneejerk' deportation plans

The Archbishop of York has blasted Nigel Farage's declaration that his party will deport 600,000 people if they win the next election. The Reform UK leader made the policy announcement this week as he committed the party to arresting asylum seekers on arrival, enforcing automatic detention and enacting forced deportation to countries such as Afghanistan and Eritrea.

In the wake of the announcement, Downing Street insinuated that the government could also consider such plans, telling reporters that all options remained on the table. But the Stephen Cottrell, the acting head of the Church of England accused Farage of a "kneejerk" reaction to a complex migration crisis, insisting that his plans do not offer any "long-term solution". He said: "You haven't solved the problem."

He told Sky News: "You've just put it somewhere else and you've done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country.

"And so if you think that's the answer, you will discover in due course that all you have done is made the problem worse.

"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... we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk 'send them home'."

Earlier this week, Mr Farage was asked if his plans for mass deportation, which could see people removed to countries where they face the serious threat of persecution, arrest, torture and even death, were supported by Christian leaders.

He said: "Whoever the Christian leaders are at any given point in time, I think over the last decades, quite a few of them have been rather out of touch, perhaps with their own flock.

"We believe that what we're offering is right and proper, and we believe for a political party that was founded around the slogan of family, community, country that we are doing right by all of those things, with these plans we put forward today."

In the wake of the announcement, Farage backtracked on comments which indicated that he was willing to deport women and children back to countries where they could be put in harm's way.

As he announced 'Operation restoring justice', Farage had conceded that "how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue," as he insisted "women and children, everybody on arrival, will be detained."

However on Wednesday, speaking at a conference where Reform UK unveiled another defection from the Conservatives, Farage claimed that media reports that his party were willing to deport women and children were "wrong, wrong, wrong," claiming that his party were "not even discussing women and children at this stage".

Farage told broadcasters: "Deporting children is a very difficult thing to do. Who do they go to, what are the wards of care? Women and children, intimating families that have been here illegally for some years, are they top of our list? No."