‘Sameless’ Justin Welby attended a gathering of the ‘great and good’ the day after he was forced to quit over the church’s worst child abuse scandal, the editor of Private Eye has revealed.

Ian Hislop said he did not believe the Archbishop of Canterbury had the courage to attend a lavish dinner after being forced out over his handling of abuse allegations against barrister John Smyth.

The Have I Got News For You star described it as “astounding” that Dr Welby had turned up at the British Museum trustees’ annual dinner last week after he resigned in “disgrace”.

In a column, Mr Hislop wrote: “It was a gathering of the ‘great and good’, but as I stood with a drink in my hand I could not help noticing that the man standing across the great court from me was the Archbishop of Canterbury .

“This was the day after he had been forced to resign in disgrace for his role in an appalling scandal and cover-up of monstrous abuses in the Church of England.

‘Sameless’ Justin Welby (pictured) attended a gathering of the ‘great and good’ the day after he was forced to quit over the church’s worst child abuse scandal, the editor of Private Eye has revealed

Ian Hislop (pictured) said he did not believe the Archbishop of Canterbury had the courage to attend a lavish dinner after being forced out

Welby resigned over his handling of abuse claims against John Smyth (pictured)

“Like many guests there, I couldn’t believe he would show up to a public event. It was amazing.

He said Mr Welby had approached his group and introduced himself, before looking around and asking, “isn’t this lovely?”

Mr Hislop added: “I am afraid at this point I could not restrain myself and refused to allow him to use the courtesy of the British establishment to get away with what I thought was extraordinarily shameless behaviour.

“I said, ‘It’s great you’ve resigned.’

Lambeth Palace said on Wednesday that Dr Welby intends to complete his official duties by January 6 and will have “very little public business” between now and then.

His official functions will then be delegated to the Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell.

The BBC said Dr Welby will not deliver the traditional televised New Year message this year and it will return next year when a new Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed.

The church has not confirmed whether he will deliver the Christmas Day sermon.