Justin Welby tells the House of Lords a head had to “roll”, and it was “clear” he “had to stand down” as archbishop of Canterbury after a review criticised him over failures in handling a Church of England abuse scandal. Report by Blairm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The reality is that there comes a time, if you are technically leading a particular institution or area of responsibility,
00:11where the shame of what has gone wrong, whether one is personally responsible or not, must require a head to roll.
00:22And there is only, in this case, one head that rolls well enough.
00:26I hope not literally. One of my predecessors in 1371, Simon of Sudbury, had his head cut off,
00:33and it was then the peasants, the revolting peasants at the time, played football with it at the Tower of London.
00:40I don't know who won. It certainly wasn't Simon of Sudbury.
00:45The reality is that the safeguarding and care of children and vulnerable adults in the Church of England today
00:55is thanks to thousands and tens of thousands of people across the Church, particularly in parishes,
01:02in parish safeguarding officers, is a completely different picture to the past.
01:07However, when I look back at the last 50 or 60 years, not only through the eyes of the making report,
01:17however one takes one's view of personal responsibility, it is clear that I had to stand down.
01:26And it is for that reason that I do so.