Bishop condemns Suella Braverman's 'damaging' migrant rhetoric, likening her to Enoch Powell
30 September 2023, 18:46
Bishop Lowe weighs in on Suella Braverman speech
Former Bishop of Hulme Stephen Lowe accuses the Home Secretary of 'playing to the gallery of the far right', following her speech in Washington.
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Speaking to Sangita Myska, the former Bishop of Hulme Stephen Lowe criticised Suella Braverman's speech at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington DC on Tuesday.
This comes after the Home Secretary declined to meet with the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby "to discuss issues of mutual interest and concern".
Bishop Stephen Lowe said: "The Archbishop of Canterbury is recognising that the state of the nation where you have one of the senior ministers of government, presumably with the blessing of the Prime Minister, actually making a speech with that kind of language... is actually tearing apart the very strands which hold our society together."
The Bishop went on to liken Suella Braverman's rhetoric to that of Enoch Powell, comparing her speech to his 'Rivers of Blood' speech.
He said: "I recognised at the time the enormous damage it did to our society and now we have a repeat of that.
"Here is a minister who is playing to the gallery of the far right in the Conservative Party and actually using that sort of language all over again."
READ MORE: Suella Braverman 'turned down meeting with Justin Welby to discuss immigration'
Sangita Myska's full monologue in response to Suella Braverman's Washington speech
Bishop Stephen Lowe went on to say: "I find it so distressing. This is actually an attack on the very fabric of our society and its bonds of communities living well together.
"Which is what we need to be building on the notion of people belonging and accountable to one another, showing kindness, love, and respect to people, regardless of their sexuality, their gender, their race."
Referring to the government's potential abandonment of the UN Charter and the European Court of Human Rights, the Bishop told Sangita that the UK would be "walking away from any sort of moral compass".
He continued: "I think if she is going to make these sort of statements which are divisive, then she has to offer some grounds of how she wants our society to function and she hasn't done that.
"She's simply playing to a political gallery of people with whom she agrees, who are on the extreme right of the Conservative Party and represent people who are interested in dividing our society and not uniting it."
Sangita asked: "What would you say to those people that may be thinking the likes of you and the Archbishop of Canterbury are simply meddling priests who have no place in politics?"
Bishop Stephen Lowe replied: "As far as I'm concerned, the whole of Christianity and in fact, most of the major world religions are about how humankind lives together in peace and harmony.
"So, that's a nonsense to say that that is political. Of course, politics is about the way in which people live together, in relationship and in society, and so is religion, because the values of religion are those of how we live together."
