Sending millions to France just 'creates more deaths'

Bishop of Dover criticises British government’s approach to the small boats crisis in an interview with The Independent

- DAVID MADDOX

The Bishop of Dover has warned that the millions of pounds being handed to France by the British government to stop migrants crossing the Channel on small boats is “creating more deaths”.

Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the UK’s first black female bishop, spoke to The Independent as she temporarily takes over many of Justin Welby’s duties as he stepped down as Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday.

Her interview comes as she publishes her autobiography, The Girl from Montego Bay, which traces her early beginnings in absolute poverty in Jamaica, her struggles and rise in the Church of England and being the Commons chaplain in the toxic Brexit era.

She talked about her first-hand experience of the consequences of Brexit and the immigration she sees near the Kent coast. In a forthright conversation, Bishop Hudson-Wilkin did not hold back with her views:

Defending the “compassionate” legacy of Justin Welby and arguing the next Archbishop of Canterbury needs to be like him

Defending former speaker John Bercow, arguing he is “a good man” who was “a casualty of Brexit”

Discussing the “shameful” way MPs conducted the Brexit debate and the dire consequences of leaving the EU

Demands “restorative justice” for slavery from the UK, but not reparations

Speaking in her office in the picturesque medieval Old Palace in Canterbury, Bishop Hudson-Wilkin is angered by the harsh realities faced by those caught up in the immigration crisis not many miles away.

In particular, she is highly critical of the UK’s attempts to “stop the boats” by paying hundreds of millions to France.

“The millions of pounds that we’re giving to the gendarmerie [French military police] is actually creating more deaths,” she said. “I’m going out to Calais shortly. I was there in April this year, and I saw first hand.