Welby: Church and unions can hold business to account

THE Church of England wants to work with unions and form “new partnerships” to hold big companies to account, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

The Most Rev Justin Welby spoke out on the eve of a key speech to the Trades Union Congress’s annual conference in Manchester.

He told the TUC’S Congress guide, which is available only to union activists: “Holding businesses to account and making sure the needs of people are put at the centre is vital.

“Many of us have a role to play here – and unions are integral. Employers in every sector need unions, to keep them doing justice. And unions need employers who are just.”

He continued: “My prayer is that we seek to follow Christ faithfully and humbly, we will form new partnerships – with the TUC and with other areas of national life right across the spectrum.

“Trade unions are one of the civil society institutions essential to the aim of solidarity, the common good and fully valuing all people regardless of differences in nature and capacity.”

He said he was “looking forward to exploring together how we can inform the kind of fair and prosperous society we want to live in”.

The Archbishop has been taking an increasingly strident political line with a series of interventions in recent weeks.

Last week he said that raising taxes would make people happier, suggesting that higher taxes could fund improvements in the environment and culture, which could improve overall happiness.

In June he said the Government should find its “nerve” and “courage” to raise taxes to fund public services such as the National Health Service.

He also urged ministers to borrow more to spend on public services saying that they were “panicked” into thinking that increasing debt is “somehow a disaster”.

The comments risked reopening divisions with the Tories that date back to the Eighties when the Church criticised Margaret Thatcher’s government over its inner cities policies.