Archbishop of Canterbury: delay Portland Port barge

Justin Welby, a critic of the government's asylum policy, visited Weymouth and Portland today as part of a planned visit of the region by the Diocese of Salisbury.

He met with community leaders over breakfast on Portland this morning, where residents told him about their concerns over the barge plans. He later attended an event at St John's Church in Weymouth.

Around 500 asylum seekers are set to move into a barge at Portland Port in the coming weeks, with the barge's arrival imminent.

The archbishop, the most senior bishop in the Church of England, told the Dorset Echo: "One of the things that came across most clearly is they haven't been consulted, nobody here has been consulted.

"My view is that they should delay the barge until they have done a proper consultation here.

"They should delay it until they have decided how the local community has been resourced."

He added: "We have just been in the church just now and I was talking to people there who were saying 'of course we will look after people' and the government said voluntary groups will look after people.

"That is just taking it for granted, it is not fair, they need to get some people down here to listen and say, we need to do the barge, and this is how we will resource the local community."

It comes after the archbishop made a rare intervention in the House of Lords last month, criticising the Government's Illegal Migration Bill.

He added that the barge may not be needed if the Government were to more effectively deal with the backlog of asylum claims.

He said: "Actually, the better way of doing it is they have 50,000 people on the waiting list to have their asylum claim dealt with.

"Every time they deal with 500 people that is one barge load less, so deal with 500 people and don't bring the barge.

"The best way, the cheapest way and the most just and honest way of dealing with this is dealing with the backlog."