The newly appointed Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, has rejected Tony Blair's call to the Catholic Church this week to“modernise” its views on homosexuality.

The Archbishop, who will take up his new position as leader of the Catholics in England and Wales on 21 May, described Blair as a fine politician with “very well-tuned political senses”, according to the Daily Mail.

However, Archbishop Nichols added that on moral and spiritual issues, “I think I will take my guide from Pope Benedict.”

Mr Blair converted to Catholicism soon after leaving office in 2007. This week he claimed that the Church needed to rethink its “entrenched” attitude to homosexuality and modernise, just as the Labour party modernised in the 1990s.

Although welcomed by the Church, the conversion was criticised by some at the time who said that he had shown no signs of repentance for going against Church teaching during his time in office.

The Iraq war, the introduction of civil partnerships and a refusal to allow Catholic adoption agencies to allow only heterosexual married couples to adopt children all put him at odds with the Church.