A senior Labour MP has intervened in the Justin Welby abuse row highlighting his “failure to act” as the party adds to the pressure piling on the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Marsha de Cordova, who represents the Church of England in the House of Commons, said the sexual abuse scandal was a “stark reminder that the church has much more work to do” to clean up its act.
She stopped short of backing calls for Mr Welby to resign, but her pointed remarks add to the pressure on the embattled archbishop after a damning report into a barrister thought to have been the most prolific serial abuser to be associated with the Church of England.
Downing Street announced last month that the appointment of Ms de Cordova as Second Church Estates Commissioner, the church’s representative in the Commons, had been approved by the King.
She is the 43rd Second Church Estates Commissioner, “a role first created in 1850 to coordinate between Government, Parliament, and the established Church”, according to the Church of England.
Ms de Cordova said on Monday: “I recognise the Archbishop of Canterbury’s acknowledgement of and apology for his own failure to act with sufficient urgency in his response to learning about the abuse in 2013.
“This case is a stark reminder that there is much more work for the Church of England to do to ensure it provides safe, open and transparent spaces for everyone in society.”
Ms de Cordova’s comments come as a petition by some members of the General Synod – the church’s parliament – has now reached more than 5,000 signatures, urging Mr Welby to stand down over his “failures” to alert authorities about John Smyth QC’s “abhorrent” abuse of children and young men.
The Makin review into the abuse, published last week, concluded that he might have been brought to justice had the archbishop formally reported it to police a decade ago.
The prime minister himself would not be drawn on the issue, with Keir Starmer telling reporters the matter of whether Mr Welby should resign is one for the church.
However, Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley echoed the petition’s calls, saying the Church of England risked losing its “moral voice” if the situation persisted.
Ms Hartley told the BBC: “I think that it’s very hard for the church as the national, the established church, to continue to have a moral voice in any way, shape or form in our nation when we cannot get our own house in order with regard to something as critically important, something that would be asked of any institution, let alone the church, which is meant to have the gospel of Jesus Christ looking out for the most vulnerable in our midst.
“We are in danger of losing complete credibility on that front.”
Of Mr Welby, she said: “I think, sadly, his position is untenable, so I think he should resign.”
She said while his resignation is “not going to solve the problem”, it would be “a very clear indication that a line has been drawn, and that we must move towards independence of safeguarding”.
When the report was published Mr Welby admitted he had considered resigning but decided not to after taking advice from “senior colleagues”.
After the petition was launched, Mr Welby’s spokesman said he “reiterates his horror at the scale of John Smyth’s egregious abuse, as reflected in his public apology”, repeated that he does not intend to resign, and said he “hopes the Makin Review supports the ongoing work of building a safer church here and around the world”.
Smyth died aged 75 in Cape Town in 2018 while under investigation by Hampshire Police, and was “never bought to justice for the abuse”, the Makin Review published last week said.
Across five decades, Smyth is said to have subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to traumatic physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual attacks, permanently marking their lives.
The Archbishop said he had “no idea or suspicion of this abuse” before 2013 but acknowledged the review had found that after its wider exposure that year he had “personally failed to ensure” it was “energetically investigated”.