A former Archbishop of Canterbury has warned that Christians face extinction in the Middle East and urged Theresa May to make their protection a priority.  

Lord Carey of Clifton said he recently saw images of Qaraqosh, in the Nineveh Plains near Mosul, taken by ISIS in 2014. Most of its 50,000 Christians fled or were murdered in the ravages of Islamic State and the once thriving city is now a wasteland.

However, surviving Christians who are still in the Middle East are starting to trickle back and it is believed thousands more are still alive and could be persuaded to return.

Aid to the Church in Need recently held its first 'Olive Tree' ceremony in Qaraqosh to mark the start of a programme to rebuild at least 12,000 homes. 

Carey, writing in the Telegraph, says: 'I have always felt a particular connection with Iraq having spent my national service as a wireless operator in Basra and when I was there the Christian community was a sizeable proportion of the population – living happily and peacefully alongside Shia and Sunni Muslims.

'But successive waves of persecution and violence are threatening to "cleanse" Christianity not just from its heartlands in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Israel and Palestinian areas, but from the whole of the Middle East.'

He notes that it is only just over 100 years since the often forgotten Armenian genocide by the Ottomans wiped out millions of Middle-Eastern Christians.

The world has been standing by while it happens again at the hands of ISIS and other groups linked to Al-Qaeda, he says, warning: 'The situation is similarly parlous in Northern Nigeria where Boko Haram – notorious for abducting 296 Chibok schoolgirls – has been conducting a systematic reign of terror and killing of Christian communities.'

Dozens of surviving Chibok girls were recently released from their prolonged captivity.

Carey calls for the next UK government to cut its aid to countries where the persecution of Christians is aided and abetted by civil authorities.

He says: 'The British government cannot stop religious persecution on its own, but it can provide leadership to the world by using the fullest extent of its diplomatic and economic power.'

He concludes: 'If, as the polls suggest, the Conservatives are likely to get a huge majority, I urge Theresa May to transcend the parochialism of narrow politics and regain a broad compassionate vision of working for minorities in parts of the world where radical Islam is so destructive.'