The Prime Minister backed the Church of England yesterday in the row over Sony’s use of Manchester Cathedral as a setting for a gory computer game.

Tony Blair told Parliament that there was a need for large organisations or corporations such as Sony to have “some sense of responsibility and some sensitivity to the feelings of communities”. It had to be recognised that there was a wider social responsibility that went beyond the “responsibility for profit” whatever the cost.

The Dean of Manchester, the Very Reverend Rogers Govender, said that Sony had made no formal contact since the dispute was reported by The Times last Friday.

Virtual images of the interior of Manchester Cathedral feature prominently in a violent shoot-out in the Play-Station 3 game Resistance: Fall of Man.

The cathedral has called for all copies of the game to be removed from shop shelves and for Sony to make a substantial donation to Church charities. The computer game has sold more than one million copies and depicts a fictional 1950s world where the Second World War never happened and aliens are trying to take over the planet.

The dean thanked Mr Blair for his comments and repeated that using the cathedral as a backdrop for the game was “highly irresponsible”.

The game shows scenes of bloody violence where players must shoot dead a host of enemies using weapons such as a close-quarter combat shotgun, sniper rifle and Hailstorm chaingun.

Cathedral clergy believe that the use of Manchester as a setting for the game is particularly inappropriate because of the city’s history of gun violence. A spokesman said the issue had provoked particular controversy in Japan.

The dean said: “On Monday we sent a letter to Sony outlining our concerns and making some key demands. Today I want to report that since sending that letter we have had no formal response from Sony.

“We believe a silent response on the issue is not acceptable behaviour for a responsible large corporate body. Today I want to appeal directly to the people of Japan to help us to put pressure on Sony to respond. So I speak directly to those citizens who share our concerns.

“For a global manufacturer to recreate the interior of any religious building such as a mosque, synagogue or, in this case, a cathedral, with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and in our view highly irresponsible.”

He repeated his call for Sony to withdraw the game, apologise unreservedly for using the cathedral interior without permission and to make a substantial donation to the Church’s education department, which helps to tackle gun violence.

The cathedral is now consulting lawyers over what to do next.

A Sony spokesman refused to comment yesterday but said that the company had been in contact with the cathedral by telephone on more than one occasion.