A Church of England whistleblow stunned MPs after revealing the widespread abuse of baptisms by asylum seekers in Britain.
Reverend Matthew Firth, a former priest at St Cuthbert's Church in Darlington, accused the Church of England’s senior leadership of turning a blind eye to the abuse of the system for politically motivated reasons.
He also claimed that groups of around six to seven asylum seekers would be brought to him every 2-3 weeks requesting baptism, all of whom had already failed their first application.
Lee Anderson pressed the former vicar over whether the Archbishop of Canterbury is responsible for setting the failing policy direction of the Church, blasting Justin Welby for failing to give evidence to the Committee.
The Reform UK MP praised Revd. Firth as “incredibly brave” for giving evidence to the committee, “much braver than the Archbishop of Canterbury by the way, who has not come today”.
Asked by Mr Anderson whether Mr Welby has “turned a blind eye to this”, Revd. Firth accused the church’s leadership of a “lack of awareness”.
“I think there’s a lack of awareness about the particular dynamics I’ve been describing, and an unwillingness at the moment to be totally honest about those dynamics.
“That’s partly why I started to engage in the public discussion around this as I wanted to inject some truth into this.”
Mr Anderson quipped that the revelations of false asylum applications are in fact “good news”.
“I’m sure the Archbishop of Canterbury will be delighted to know that if more people do convert to Christianity - especially if they’re asylum seekers or illegal migrants - we now know that Rwanda is a Christian country… so that would be a safe place to go!”
The church whistleblower also hit out at guidance from the CofE on helping asylum seekers with their applications, which he accused of containing political attacks and called for the guidance to be re-written more neutrally.
He revealed that after honouring pre-existing baptism applications at St Cuthbert’s, he pressed “the pause button” on further requests as it became clear to him many applicants weren’t genuine in their beliefs.
Revd. Firth said he told applicants that they must prove their religious commitment by getting involved in church life and the church’s wider community activities, but found baptism applicants quickly fell away after making this stipulation.
He claimed it is “common knowledge” among many other vicars and priests that the system is being abused, so found the attack on his claims by the Diocese of Durham to be “extraordinary”.
After first speaking out following the Clapham alkali attack by an asylum seeker who was only granted leave to remain after being baptised, a spokesman for the diocese said: “His claims of the church being a ‘conveyor belt’ of asylum seeker baptisms are nonsense”.
Despite criticism of him by the Church establishment, Revd. Firth doubled down this morning, arguing that some asylum seekers do perceive baptism as a “ticket to something”.
He claimed that based on his knowledge, almost all the baptism applicants that came to him, or were referred to him, had already failed their initial asylum claims.
Asked how the Church should be distinguishing genuine baptism requests by asylum seekers from fake ones, he suggested evidence of Christianity in their home state should bolster the validity of the request.
Alternatively, if the applicant felt unsafe practising their religion back home, a swift application after coming to the UK should also be taken seriously.