Allies pushing for deportation veto

ARCHBISHOP JUSTIN WELBY Age: 68

Education: Trinity College, Cambridge

THE Anglican leader has opposed the Government’s Rwanda policy since the very beginning.

In his 2022 Easter sermon – weeks after the scheme was unveiled – he said the proposals were ‘the opposite of the nature of God’.

But, in remarks which now acquire a different hue after his backing of a Labour peer’s changes to the Bill, Mr Welby added: ‘The details are for politics. The principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot.’

BARONESS SHAMI CHAKRABARTI Age: 54

Education: London School of Economics

A DARLING of the Left, the barrister ran the civil rights group Liberty for 13 years.

But her reputation suffered a blow when, in 2016, she was appointed by Jeremy Corbyn to look into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism within Labour. Her report found the party had suffered from an ‘occasionally toxic atmosphere’ but was ‘not overrun by antisemitism’.

It was dismissed as a ‘whitewash’ by critics, including the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

BARONESS BRENDA HALE Age: 79

Education: Girton College, Cambridge

BORN in Yorkshire, Lady Hale spent most of her early career in legal academia and as a part-time judge.

She was the first female Law Lord in 200 and, in 2017, became the first woman to serve as president of the Supreme Court.

She oversaw the Supreme Court’s scrutiny of Boris Johnson’s 2019 prorogation of Parliament over Brexit.

Justices concluded it was unlawful, which she later described as ‘a source of, not pride, but satisfaction’.