The archbishop of Canterbury has warned the inflammatory language used by Boris Johnson and other parliamentarians risks pouring petrol over Brexit divisions.
Justin Welby said the UK had become consumed by “an abusive and binary approach to political decisions” and amplification on social media made it “extraordinarily dangerous to use careless comments”.
The prime minister has refused to stop describing the Benn act, which is designed to block a no-deal Brexit, as the “surrender act”, despite criticism of the way in which this paints his opponents in parliament as traitors guilty of a betrayal.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Welby said he was shocked by Johnson’s recent dismissal of concerns about threats to MPs as “humbug”. Johnson went on to say the best way to honour the memory of the MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by a far-right terrorist during the EU referendum campaign, was “to get Brexit done”.
Welby said: “[Concerns] should never be dismissed in that way. Death threats are really serious and they need to be taken seriously. All sides need to say: ‘That is totally and utterly unacceptable.’”
Welby said politicians could no longer behave like Johnson’s political hero. “[Winston] Churchill was well known for his somewhat inflammatory putdowns in parliament. But this is happening at a time when we have social media, which amplifies things,” he said.
“In a time of deep uncertainty, a much smaller amount of petrol is a much more dangerous thing than it was in a time when people were secure. There is a great danger to doing it when we’re already in a very polarised and volatile situation.”
Speaking on a visit to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where he has been highlighting the Ebola outbreak, Welby said: “I think we have become addicted to an abusive and binary approach to political decisions: ‘it’s either this or you’re my total enemy.’
“There have been inflammatory words used on all sides, in parliament and outside – ‘traitor’, ‘fascist’, all kinds of really bad things have been said at the highest level in politics.”
Speaking about the parliamentary debate in which Johnson used the term “humbug”, Welby said it was not only the prime minister who had used inflammatory language. “Nor was it only the Conservatives,” he said. “There were a great deal of really difficult things, really bad things being said.
“Within an environment where we’ve seen the biggest rise in hate crime, and particularly antisemitic crime and Islamophobic crime, the amplification given by social media makes it extraordinarily dangerous to use careless comments.”
The archbishop said many MPs and peers had been driven to “the end of their tether” by the Brexit process and had approached him for guidance. “The stress is enormous,” Welby said. “And they’re being threatened a great deal and they’re finding age-old friendships breaking down.”
