The Archbishop of Canterbury will make a rare intervention in the House of Lords on Wednesday to condemn the Government's Illegal Migration Bill as it faces its first test in the upper chamber, according to reports. Justin Welby is set to argue against the flagship legislation aimed at ensuring people who arrive in the UK in small boats would be detained and promptly removed, either to their home country or a third country such as Rwanda.
The intervention, first reported in the i, would mark his second major rebuke of the Government's treatment of migrants and asylum seekers. The unelected chamber will sit earlier from 11am to consider the Bill at second reading after it passed the Commons, with almost 90 speakers including the Archbishop listed. Ahead of the legislation returning to the red benches, Home Secretary Suella Braverman and Justice Secretary Alex Chalk have urged peers not to stand in the way of the "will of the British people" by blocking the UK Government's migration policies.
Writing jointly for Times Red Box, the two Cabinet ministers said: "We urge the House of Lords to look at the Illegal Migration Bill carefully, remember it is designed to meet the will of the British people in a humane and fair way, and back the Bill."
