The Archbishop of York is “wrong on all accounts” for critiscising Reform UK’s migrant deportation plans, Richard Tice has blasted. The party’s deputy leader lashed out after Stephen Cottrell said the UK should resist Reform’s “kneejerk” plan for the mass deportation of migrants, telling Nigel Farage he is not offering any “long-term solution”.

He said: “All of it’s wrong because our policy on asylum seekers and removing those who are here illegally is to look after the people that the British government is supposed to look after, which is the British people, and to make them more prosperous, to improve the quality of public services for British citizens.”

He added: “And you’ve now got a government that’s basically admitted the opposite is true.

“They’re more interested in protecting the rights of people who’ve come here illegally, therefore they are criminals, than looking after the rights of British citizens.

“That’s the dividing line, and that’s why the latest poll shows that at 35% we’re 15 points ahead of a disappearing Labour Party.”

Mr Cottrell is currently acting spiritual head of the Church of England while a new Archbishop of Canterbury is chosen.

Speaking on Sky News, Phillips asked him: “What’s your response to the people who are saying the policy should be ‘you land here, unlawfully, you get locked up and you get deported straight away. No ifs, no buts’?”

Mr Cottrell said he would tell them “you haven’t solved the problem”, adding: “You’ve just put it somewhere else and you’ve done nothing to address the issue of what brings people to this country.

“And so if you think that’s the answer, you will discover in due course that all you have done is made the problem worse.

“Don’t misunderstand me, I have every sympathy with those who find this difficult, every sympathy – as I do with those living in poverty.

“But… we should actively resist the kind of isolationist, short term kneejerk ‘send them home’.”

Asked if that was his message to the Reform leader, he said: “Well, it is. I mean, Mr Farage is saying the things he’s saying, but he is not offering any long-term solution to the big issues which are convulsing our world, which lead to this. And, I see no other way.”

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said Reform UK is “whipping up anger” about immigration but does not have a plan to tackle the issue.

Speaking on the same show, the minister said: “I understand the frustration that people feel, because I understand when they see, for example, asylum hotels and big numbers of people in their community.

“I understand how that can make people feel.

“But Nigel Farage and Reform, they don’t actually want to sort this problem – interests are served by whipping up anger rather than fixing it.”

Asked what the difference is between what the Labour Government says on immigration and what Reform says, Ms Phillipson replied: “The difference is we’ll actually take action.”

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Alex Burghart was asked on Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on Sky News for his response to the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell who said plans to immediately detain and deport illegal migrants on arrival in the UK were “isolationist, short-term knee-jerk”.

Mr Burghart said: “I think it’s very clear to everyone watching at home or watching your show, Trevor, that far too many people are coming to this country illegally, that there needs to be full adequate deterrence to prevent that from happening, and that under this Government, we don’t have that.

“That’s why the Conservatives be very clear under Kemi (Badenoch) that if we get back into power, we will make sure that anyone who crosses the Channel illegally, tries to get into our country illegally, is deported.”