The bishop of Colchester has hit out at the government for its failure to protect the most vulnerable people in society.

In a hard-hitting address to Colchester Foodbank, Rt Rev Roger Morris said foodbanks were 'a sign that on the whole we have failed'.

He said: 'We have failed to care for those most in need. We have failed to protect the most vulnerable in society. We have failed in our promises to look after all people from the cradle to the grave.

'And our failures as government, as society, as a so-called welfare state are then mopped up by the third sector.'

While it was good that foodbanks existed, he said, 'it is ultimately wrong, unjust, inhuman that people should be plunged into such a state of desperation and degradation in the first place'.

Citing Deuteronomy 15:11 which says, 'Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, "Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land,"' he said: 'In Britain, in 2018, these very instructions are at serious risk of being cast aside by a society that no longer holds open its hand to the poor and needy neighbour.'

He called for a rise in benefit payments, saying the government had 'decided to make the poor poorer' through tax and benefit changes. The two-child limit – by which benefits are paid for two children no matter how many a family has – should be scrapped, he said, and lengthy delays in Universal Credit payments, with the 'cruel' sanctions regime, should be addressed.

He condemned the treatment of disability claimants and migrants, and warned the government not to 'pass the buck or hide behind systems that have been designed to fail'.

He told his audience: ' I will keep praying that one day you will become gloriously irrelevant as the needs of the poor are properly met and the safety net that we all need to be in place is properly maintained and fit for purpose.'