Leaders need to be honest, candid and willing to apologise, Justin Welby tells BBC Newscast.
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The Archbishop of Canterbury has said he was “disappointed” to see a photo of Tory staff at a party last Christmas while the country was in lockdown.
The picture was taken at Tory HQ as the team of former London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey gathered in the basement.
The Metropolitan Police said it would be contacting two people at the event.
Justin Welby told BBC Newscast the party happened around the same time he was offering prayers and comfort to the dying at a nearby hospital.
He told the podcast that leaders needed to be honest, candid and willing to apologise – and that they should stick to the rules.
Details of a raft of Christmas parties in 2020 across different government departments have been revealed over the last fortnight.
Boris Johnson – who was pictured on screen at a Christmas quiz in No 10, but insisted he “broke no rules” – has ordered an inquiry, led by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, into some of the events.
Speaking about the issue for the first time, the archbishop said: “There is an investigation going on. I won’t prejudge that. But we need to set an example.”
He would not answer whether the PM needed to be more honest, but said: “You have to acknowledge where things have gone wrong.”
Mr Welby also said was “honourable” of Mr Bailey to step down as chairman of the Police and Crime Committee on the London Assembly after the picture was published.
“You have to acknowledge where things have gone wrong and say, yes that was wrong,” he added. “I notice the former mayoral candidate immediately stepped down.
“That seems to me to be an honourable and proper way of doing it. Everyone gets things wrong.”
‘Clearly essential’
During the interview with BBC Newscast, the Archbishop of Canterbury spoke repeatedly about what he saw as the importance of senior figures in public life taking responsibility and apologising where necessary, saying it “goes back a very long way.”
And asked if a culture of honesty needed to come from the top, he said: “That is clearly essential, and isn’t it wonderful that we have such an extraordinary example at the top of the the Queen in her complete integrity in every possible way?”
But pressed one more time on Mr Johnson’s conduct, he said one of the rules of his job was “you talk to people before you talk about people”.
He added: “I this extraordinary job, I get to see all these people from time to time and it’s a pastoral thing and I’m not going to say what I say in pastoral conversations.”