Justin Welby has resigned as archbishop of Canterbury after a review revealed he failed to act on reports of abuse by a Church of England preacher.

Welby announced his resignation today following a chorus of calls to step down, including from senior clergy. The calls come in the wake of a review into the Church’s handling of child abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, a lay reader in the CofE.

Between the 1970s and 2010s, Smyth subjected as many as 130 boys and young men in the UK and Africa to physical, psychological and sexual abuse, including brutal beatings with a cane for “sins”. Victims reported being beaten so badly they were forced to wear nappies to stop the bleeding. Smyth used ‘Iwerne camps’, Christian holiday camps for children aiming to promote evangelicalism in the CofE, to access many of his victims.

The ‘Makin review’ found “clear evidence” the abuse perpetrated by Smyth was “covered up”.

Key figures criticised in the review include Welby (pictured), who “could and should” have reported Smyth to authorities when details were presented to him in 2013. A police investigation into Smyth only started four years later when details of his abuse were revealed by Channel 4 News.

Welby also volunteered at the Iwerne camps in the 1970s but denied knowledge of concerns about Smyth, which the report said was “unlikely”.

On Saturday three members of the General Synod, the Church’s legislative body, launched a petition calling for Welby’s resignation.

They include Robert Thompson, vicar of St Mary’s Kilburn & St James’ West Hampstead, who spoke at the National Secular Society’s conference on protecting liberal values last month.

The petition has gained over 14,000 signatures.

On Monday the bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley said Welby should resign, calling his position “untenable”. Victims and survivors have accused Welby of lying about how much he knew about the abuse.

The review makes 27 recommendations, including that the Church consider “applying ‘mandatory’ reporting within future Church safeguarding policy and procedure, ahead of this being introduced as a national requirement”. The previous government said in February it would proceed with mandatory reporting laws, in which anyone in a “regulated activity” relating to children in England would be legally required to report it if they know a child is being sexually abused.

A report published earlier this year said safeguarding in the CofE “falls below the standards expected and set in secular organisations”.

Journalist Andrew Graystone, who has long advocated for victims of clerical abuse, released a statement on Thursday on behalf of victims and survivors of Smyths abuse which said they have “little confidence” that the Church will take “any more notice” of the Makin review “than it has of all those recommendations of the many previous safeguarding reports.”

Due to its established status, the CofE is given automatic seats in the House of Lords for its bishops and controls a quarter of state funded primary schools.

The next archbishop of Canterbury will be nominated by King Charles, on the prime minister’s advice on the appointment. Prime minister Keir Starmer must approve of the choices of archbishop put forward by the Church, despite being an atheist.

NSS: Disestablishment “would be in the best interests of both Church and state”

NSS head of campaigns Megan Manson said: “Justin Welby’s resignation is a damning indictment on the state of the Church of England.

“When senior figures in the Church learned of the concerns about John Smyth, they didn’t rush to help his victims. They didn’t rush to protect children who may become Smyth’s next victims. Instead, they rushed to cover the whole affair up.

“Supporters of establishment often claim the Church provides some sort of moral guidance for the state. But the Church’s cover up of the crimes of its most prolific abuser demonstrate it cannot even do the right thing within its own ranks. The UK state should not be shackled to an institution that has enabled so many abusers and failed their victims on every level.

“Welby has said his resignation is in the best interests of the Church. Disestablishment would be in the best interests of both Church and state.”

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