THE Archbishop of Canterbury accused Tony Blair of eroding public trust in Britain’s political system yesterday as he launched a wide-ranging attack on the style and conduct of the Government.

Dr Rowan Williams said that deceptive official statements risked bringing democracy into disrepute and even raised the spectre of civil disobedience in response.

In a devastating critique, he maintained that the Government had “habitually repressed criticism” and was in danger of losing its claim upon public obedience.

Arguing that “weakening of trust in the political system of our nation” could be restored by an admission of error, he spoke of “continuing damage to our political health”.

The Archbishop, who was appointed by Mr Blair and took office in February last year, was expected to be controversial, but has previously confined his dissent to specific issues, notably the Iraq war.

His critique of the Government in the carefully-prepared university sermon at St Benet’s Church, Cambridge, took his confrontation with Mr Blair, himself a committed Christian, to a new level.

Mr Blair has said that he accepts that there is a moral case against war, but he is likely to be angered at Dr Williams’ sweeping condemnations, when the Church has traditionally steered clear of such political broadsides.

Downing Street dismissed Dr Williams’ views as “elliptical” and said that he was free to express his views. A spokesman said: “The view of the Archbishop of Canterbury on the war in Iraq is well known and there is nothing I can add to what we have said before about that.”

The Conservatives were quick to seize upon Dr Williams’s remarks. Liam Fox, the party co-chairman, said: “It is clear that doubts about the integrity of Tony Blair and his Government have now reached all levels of society. The sad thing about the public’s lack of trust in the Prime Minister’s honesty is that it is resulting in ever-greater cynicism and disillusionment among voters.”

Dr Williams has made it clear that he opposed the war. But he has never before been openly critical of the Government. While he appeared to advocate civil disobedience, sources close to him made clear that this should only occur in the most extreme circumstances and that Britain was not yet at that point.

Dr Williams, a former lecturer in divinity at Cambridge, was addressing a congregation of academics, clerics and students. He condemned the “idle and selfish hearts” of those who advocated Christian obedience while being slow to bring their own thoughts “under obedience to Christ”. In a clear reference to Iraq, he added: “Part of the continuing damage to our political health has to do with a sense of the events of the last year on the international scene being driven by something other than attention. There were things government believed it knew and claimed to know on a privileged basis which, it emerged, were anything but certain.

“A government that habitually ignored expert advice, habitually pressed its interests abroad in ways that ignored manifest needs and priorities in the wider human and non-human environment, habitually repressed criticism or manipulated public media — such a regime would, to say the least, jeopardise its claim to obedience because it was refusing attention.”

Making the case for a government apology or admission of error, he said: “Government . . . restores lost trust above all by its willingness to attend to what lies beyond the urgency of asserting control and retaining visible and simple initiative, by patient accountability and the freedom to think again, even to admit error or miscalculation.”

People had a vote they could exercise at elections, he said. “But without these processes being robust and visible and involving more than just simple governmental interest at any time, the authority of government suffers.

“It is not that we face regular campaigns of huge public disobedience. There may be a time for these, as in the Civil Rights struggles of sixties America. But they are rightly rare, confined to cases where government’s inattention has become a matter of serious and lasting injustice.”

The sermon was welcomed by the congregation. Dr David Ford, Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, said: “It was a well-crafted, judicious and timely contribution to the highest level of political discussion in this country.”

Clive Soley the Labour MP, said: “It is quite proper for anyone, including church leaders, to comment on the decline in trust in government. But it is important to put it in a wider context too. Lack of trust is not just recent, it is also in other western democracies.”

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