Archbishop Sentamu says Labour's obsession with human rights is 'threat to freedom'

Labour's policies on human rights have become a threat to freedom, the Archbishop of York said yesterday.

Dr John Sentamu suggested that the Government was ' sacrificing liberty in favour of an abused form of equality'.

The Archbishop said human rights did not work without a moral foundation, yet morality had been replaced by consumer desires.

He also warned against the growth of 'diktat and bureaucracy' which he said interfered with personal beliefs.

Dr Sentamu's broadside follows last week's powerful condemnation of Britain's 'broken' society by Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of

Rochester. He argued that Christianity was the keystone of dignity, equality and freedom and without it society would collapse.

Dr Sentamu, who comes second in the CofE hierarchy, is a popular figure often tipped to succeed Dr Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury.

His condemnation of human rights without religion, and his decision to point the finger at Labour, came in an address given to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.

He said: 'One of the many mantras of the New Labour party of a decade ago was that of rights and responsibilities: the idea that along with entitlement comes obligation.

'Unfortunately the combination of a rapacious consumerist appetite with this mantra has led to a situation where seemingly unfettered rights and entitlements have come to the fore while responsibility has not simply gone out of fashion but seems to have fallen off the radar.'

He added: 'Our current Government is in danger of sacrificing liberty in favour of an abused form of equality  -  not a meaningful equality that enables the excluded to be brought into society, but rather an equality based on diktat and bureaucracy, which overreaches into the realm of personal conscience.'

Describing the interference with personal belief as 'petty minded', Dr Sentamu said: 'Human rights without the safeguarding of a God reference tends to set up rights which trump others' rights when the mood music changes. Our society needs once more to rediscover the compassion and service at the heart of religion.'

The Ugandan-born Archbishop said: 'The trumpet which was once the herald of this nation's greatness was the imperative of moral responsibility, where what was right was informed by a faith-based understanding.

'Now we are told that if we push for the end of religion in the public arena, in our politics and the public square, we will free ourselves from the shackles of an enslaving and moribund moral responsibility.'

This, Dr Sentamu said, would mean morality would be replaced by consumerism and the imperative not to do the right thing but to buy the right thing.

His speech reflects deepening concern in the Church of England over Labour attempts to suppress Christian doubts about gay rights.

The are also fears that officialdom disapproves of Christianity.

Dr Sentamu has hit a chord with the public since he arrived in York in 2005.

He has praised British culture and the legacy of the British Empire while criticising the Leftwing doctrine of multiculturalism, now blamed for encouraging Muslim-only no-go areas

His defence of the right of a BA employee to wear a cross helped force the airline to back down in its ban on Christian symbols.

Last week Dr Nazir-Ali, who was born in Pakistan, condemned 'endless self-indulgence' which he said had supplanted Christian values, undermined the family and left Britain defenceless against radical Islam.