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Top Tory Iain Duncan Smith has congratulated the Archbishop of Canterbury for saying it's not racist to fear migration - within minutes of blasting his own boss for stoking fear over Brexit.

The welfare-slashing minister rushed to support Justin Welby's comments just hours after they caused a surprise stir in the EU debate.

The Archbishop said in a magazine interview that "fear is a valid emotion at a time of such colossal crisis".

He added: "This is one of the greatest movements of people in human history. Just enormous. And to be anxious about that is very reasonable.

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"There is a tendency to say 'Those people are racist', which is just outrageous, absolutely outrageous."

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Today the Work and Pensions Secretary spoke out despite launching a fresh blast at alleged fear-mongering by David Cameron's Remain campaign.

He attacked the Prime Minister's camp for stoking fear by warning of years of economic uncertainty and 3million lost jobs.

"They're almost panicky really," he claimed. "I listen to these endless comments and speeches about the dire warnings.

"They're almost biblical. You'll expect to have a plague of frogs and the death of the first-born."

Yet he claimed the Archbishop's comments about anti-migrant fear were "rational" and needed to stop people with "poor intentions and rather nasty motives" seizing the debate.

(Image: Reuters)

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I congratulate him. If you think back, for far too many years what's happened is the elite have all said 'it's terrible to talk about immigration - if you do you're racist'.

"So they shut down the debate for many many years.

"I can even remember back in the time when Tony Blair was Prime Minister, to even mention immigration was to be accused of being a racist.

"That accusation probably silenced legitimate discussion. If you do that, what happens is you push the debate to the margins."