Senior Tories blast Church for official advice on how to win asylum

SENIOR politicians have blasted the Church of England after an official asylum advice document laid bare the clergy's role in helping to facilitate applications.

- Christian Calgie

POLITICIANS' FURY OVER CLERGY 'GUIDANCE'

Top Tory Lee Anderson and former Ukip leader Nigel Farage were among those to criticise the Church after a paper showed vicars have received advice on how to mount personal campaigns in the event of asylum claims being refused.

The official document is entitled Supporting Asylum Seekers Guidance for Church of England Clergy.

It also criticises the "political narrative about British identity, rights and values" as well as the "anti-immigration rhetoric... particularly evident in the run-up to the EU referendum".

Tories have rounded on the Church of England, with MP Henry Smith accusing it of embarking on a "naive, self-path to national destructive irrelevance".

A new spotlight is being shone on the Church's role in asylum applications after the suspect involved in the Clapham substance attack was revealed to have only been granted asylum after his third application, having got a priest to vouch that he had converted to Christianity from Islam.

The conversion meant it was deemed too dangerous for suspect Abdul Ezedi to be deported to Afghanistan, despite his previous conviction for sexual assault.