Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Gavin Grey: Europe Correspondent on the Archbishop of Canterbury standing down over his handling of abuse allegations

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Gavin Grey: Europe Correspondent on the Archbishop of Canterbury standing down over his handling of abuse allegations · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Devin Grays at UK Europe correspondent, the Archbishop of Canterbury
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: has fallen on his sword.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Gevins after well a lot of criticism and also frankly
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: some dwindling sport over the last twenty four forty eight hours.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Justin Welby had really faced huge pressure to resign because
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: it emerged last week following a very lengthy report that
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: he didn't follow up really rigorously enough on reports that
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: somebody who was quite senior within the Church of England
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: or associated with it was a child abuser and had
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: committed quote abhorrent abuse of more than one hundred boys
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: and young men. John Smith was his name. It was
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: a British barrister. He was abusing boys that he met
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: at Christian summer camps in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties. Indeed,
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: he is round believed to be the most prolific serial
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: abuser associated with the Church of England. And basically there
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: was a report out and it quite clearly showed that
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: although Justin Welby had looked at that, he had assumed
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: that when it was sent to the police for investigation,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that was kind of the end of the matter, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: the end of his responsibility. It wasn't and now many
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: people say he quite simply did nothing really about it,
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: and lots of people believe he should have followed up
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: that report with much much greater action, much more decisiveness.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: And today, as you say, he's fallen on his sword.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Sue Gray, who did that report into Boris Johnson and
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: his partying during COVID, then gets chief staff for Starma,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: then gets basically the boots and given this booby prize
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: job of special invoid to nations and regions. We've got
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: an update on her this morning.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, which lots of people I sense her enemies will enjoy.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: And the news is that she won't actually be taking
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: up that new appointment. As you say, Sue Gray became
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: a household name. She led the government's internal inquiry into
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: the party gate scandal that was, of course, Boris Jrenson
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: and associates within the CIVI Service enjoying drinks and parties
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: when the rest of us were told that we should
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: not be socializing anyway. Her inquiry pretty much put paid
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: to his premiership and she left the Senior Civil Service.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: It then became clear to become a senior advisor to
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: the leader of the then opposition party that is now
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: the party of government. She was initially pointed to the
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: newly created role after departing Secure Starmer's chiefs of staff
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: last month. That was her original appointment chief of staff.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Apparently lots of headlines said that she was getting more
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: money than lots of people, including the Prime Minister. She
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: resigned from that saying she risked becoming a distraction. She
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: was then given another job, which was effectively to look
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: at the role of the regions and nations. She didn't
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: attend the first meeting. We were told she was taking
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: a break, and now we're being told she's not taking
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: the job at all. As I said, run there will
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: be lots of people with a big smile on their
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: face tonight who think that she rather irresponsibly form anyway,
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: brought down the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, I can just imagine the smiles on the
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: faces of those conservatives. The big question, of course, is
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: who is going to take this most important job of
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: special envoy to nations and regions. It sounds like the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: type of job you could get a garden gnome to do.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: To be honest with you, for.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: More from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to
• 3:19
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• 3:22
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