IN Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Government may have just encountered its most formidable opponent to date.

There have been outspoken archbishops before but governments have a tendency to counter them by accusing them of being out of touch.

Archbishop Welby’s background in the private sector as an executive in the oil industry means this accusation simply won’t stick. An inspection of CVs quickly reveals that Welby has more experience of the real world than most Conservative ministers.

From a North-East perspective, losing Bishop Welby from Durham so quickly after his appointment was hugely disappointing.

However he was here long enough to get to know the region – its strengths and weaknesses – more than any cabinet minister.

While Archbishop Welby’s (impossible?) role as leader of the Anglican Communion reaches far beyond these shores, the folk of the North-East can take some comfort in the fact the country has a moral champion who understands our region.

Paul Brannen, Newcastle

IT did not take very long for another Archbishop of Canterbury to involve himself in politics (Echo, Mar 11).

With 20 bishops in the House of Lords, one is entitled to ask whom do they represent?

Ukip, with nearly three million voters, has three members in the Lords. Where is the Church of England’s democratic mandate?

Is it now time to consider the dis-establishment of the Church of England?

Godfrey Bloom, Ukip MEP for Yorkshire

THE new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has slammed the Work and Pensions Secretary’s cruel one per cent benefits cap.

But an adamant Iain Duncan Smith has fired a shot back by saying: “Simply increasing benefits isn’t the answer to tackling poverty.”

So what does the buffoon do?

He cuts benefits for the poor.

A typical blinkered Tory philosophy from a party that thinks the poor won’t get any poorer by removing their only source of income, yet is happy to swell the wallets of 13,000 millionaires with a generous tax reduction come April 6.

Stephen Dixon, Redcar