PM hits back over church attack

In an outspoken attack, Dr Rowan Williams warned that the Government’s policies in areas such as health and education were sparking “bafflement and indignation” among voters who had not seen them exposed to public debate in last year’s election.

There was “anger and anxiety” at ministers’ efforts to push through far-reaching reforms for which they had no democratic mandate, said the head of the Church of England.

The Prime Minister said Dr Williams was free to express his views, but he “profoundly disagreed” with many of his comments.

And some Tory backbenchers were indignant at the Archbishop’s decision to intervene in the political debate, with one MP branding it “unacceptable”.

Writing in the New Statesman, of which he had been this week’s guest editor, Dr Williams said: “With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no-one voted.

“At the very least, there is an understandable anxiety about what democracy means in such a context.

“The anxiety and anger have to do with the feeling that not enough has been exposed to proper public argument.”

On welfare reform, the Archbishop said there had been a resurgence of the language of “’deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor”, combined with a “steady pressure to increase what look like punitive responses to alleged abuses of the system”.

And he was dismissive of Mr Cameron’s “painfully stale” Big Society initiative to encourage community spirit, noting widespread suspicion that it was being pursued “for opportunistic or money-saving reasons”.

Dr Williams added: “Government badly needs to hear just how much plain fear there is around questions such as these at present.

“It isn’t enough to respond with what sounds like a mixture of ‘This is the last government’s legacy’ and ‘We’d like to do more, but just wait until the economy recovers a bit’.”

Mr Cameron hit back by insisting the Government was acting in a “good and moral” fashion.

Speaking during a visit to Northern Ireland, he said: “I am absolutely convinced that our policies are about actually giving people a greater responsibility and greater chances in their life, and I will defend those very vigorously.

“By all means let us have a robust debate but I can tell you, it will always be a two-sided debate.”

The Big Society was “an enormous opportunity, not just for the Church of England but for all religious organisations and faith groups to try and make sure they do even more of the wonderful work they do to improve the condition of people in our society”, said Mr Cameron.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith denied resurrecting the Victorian concept of the “deserving poor” and said the Archbishop’s criticisms of welfare policy were “a little unbalanced and unfair”.

And Business Secretary Vince Cable said it was “a little odd” for him to suggest that the coalition’s policies were being foisted on voters without sufficient scrutiny, because there was a “vigorous debate” over issues such as health reform.

Labour insisted many voters felt the same way as the Archbishop.

Spokesman Andy Burnham said: “Across the country, people who are seeing this Tory-led Government pursuing divisive policies without a mandate will share the Archbishop’s concerns.”