He is one of the most vivacious and straight-talking members of the clergy - and once chopped up his dog collar on live television to protest against Robert Mugabe's rule in Zimbabwe.

So when the Archbishop of York, the second most senior figure in the Church of England who will step down in less than a year, was asked if he would like to stay on beyond the compulsory retirement age of 70 if he could, he didn't mince his words.

Perched on a wooden garden bench, dressed in a floral multicoloured summer shirt and matching pectoral cross, Dr John Sentamu told The Telegraph: “The reason I think there is a limit on the retirement age of archbishops is that you can go gaga really and start embarrassing everybody!

“There is nothing more terrible than that, when someone is in their prime and can do a wonderful job. It doesn’t help in any way – it doesn’t help the person, it doesn’t help the church either.

“But I give thanks to God because I’ve gone through a lot of major health problems – five operations in four years – but my health is very very good at the moment.”

The archbishop spoke out from the gardens of a picturesque pilgrimage site called Taizé in the centre of France on Friday, where he was enjoying the final few days of a week-long pilgrimage with dozens of children from five schools in his diocese.