Coalition rejects Archbishop's criticisms

The Coalition has hit back at claims by the Archbishop of Canterbury of pushing through policies that “no one voted for”.

David Cameron said the Archbishop was free to express his political views and that the Church should not feel it has to “fight shy” of making political interventions.

However, the Prime Minister said he “profoundly” disagreed with the Archbishop’s views, particularly on debt, welfare and education.

“I don’t think it is good, I don’t think it is right for people and our country if we give up on paying down our debts and just pass that down to our children.

“I don’t see anything good or even moral in that approach,” he said.

He defended the Government’s academies programme, saying it was “raising standards” and “giving people hope for a better future”.

“I’m absolutely convinced that our policies are about giving people greater responsibility and greater chances in their life and I will defend them very vigorously,” he said.

Cameron also defended his Big Society initiative against the Archbishop’s criticism that it had become a “stale slogan” viewed with “widespread suspicion”.

The Prime Minister said the Church should see the Big Society as an opportunity.

“I would say the Big Society is an enormous opportunity not just for the Church of England, but for all religious organisations and faith groups to try and make sure they do even more of the wonderful work they do to improve the condition of people in our society,” he said.

Writing in the New Statesman today, Dr Rowan Williams claimed there was “indignation” within society over the Government’s reforms in health and education.

“With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted,” he said.

“At the very least, there is an understandable anxiety about what democracy means in such a context.”

There was also “anxiety and anger”, he claimed, over the way in which the Government’s policies had not been exposed to “proper public argument”.

The Archbishop went on to argue that efforts to reignite localism were being diminished by a “quiet resurgence of the seductive language of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor”.

Neither was the Opposition spared criticism from the Archbishop, who said they had failed to come up with a credible alternative.

Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said the Archbishop’s criticisms were “unbalanced and unfair”.

“With respect to the Archbishop of Canterbury, I have never ever spoken about the deserving or undeserving poor," he said.

Liam Fox, Defence Secretary said: “The Government has legitimacy because it has a majority in the House of Commons.”