Pizzas galore!

Bob Morris, a former Home Office official who is now an honorary associate at the Constitution Unit of University College London, said: “The Government has gone out of its way to say they want the bishops to remain in the House of Lords. The last thing they want to do is to upset this particular constituency.

“I don’t think the Government have thought about disestablishment at all seriously. They have been concentrating with the composition of the House of Lords. They know they cannot reach an accommodation on composition and my guess is things will carry on much as they are. It is inertia that keeps the bishops there.”

Mr Morris said that he did not understand why the Immigration Minister had talked about disestablishment as it was “on the back burner”.

Mr Woolas made his comments about limiting immigration and about disestablishment during an interview withThe Times that is being described in Whitehall as a “car crash”.

Mr Woolas then made matters worse by saying during a debate that the Government’s handling of asylum had caused “misery and division in the country”. In the Home Office his interventions on immigration are seen as disastrous because they have undermined the Government’s attempts to persuade the country that the asylum and immigration system is robust.

A relationship of service to the nation

The Church of England argues that establishment puts it in a relationship of service to the nation, not of privilege. The Bishop of Winchester, speaking in the Lords, has argued that the “Church is established to serve, sustain and encourage the establishment of the Christian faith as the ultimate point of reference for government”

Disestablishment would put at risk

— The presence of a parish priest for every community

— The right of all, unless there is a separate legal inhibition, to be married, baptised or given a funeral at their parish church

— The Church’s central role in helping the nation to mark important events, such as royal weddings

— The role of the Church as an education provider through church schools

— The public enactment of church legislation. The laws of the Church are part of the laws of England – measures passed by General Synod also need to be passed by Parliament – and therefore the Church’s courts are part of the English legal system

— The role of the Sovereign as supreme governor of the Church

— The role of the Crown in appointing bishops and other senior clergy

— The presence of bishops in the House of Lords – they are not there to protect self-interest but to represent communities in a non-party-political way