Lord Rabbi Sacks has been presented with the £1.1m Templeton Prize for being an “entrepreneur of the spirit”.

Former winners of the award, which honours prominent figures’ contribution to spiritual life, include Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Lord Jakobovits and Sir Sigmund Sternberg.

The former Chief Rabbi told guests at the ceremony in London that news of his win had “almost rendered me speechless,” adding that he hoped he could “repay a little of the honour you have bestowed on me today.”

The 68-year-old Lord Sacks used his acceptance speech to condemn the West for “outsourcing morality” to economic markets.

Speaking at Central Hall Westminster, he said this phenomenon had led to - among other consequences - structural unemployment, lowered living standards, the inability of young families to afford a home and the collapse of marriage.

“You can’t outsource conscience. You can’t delegate moral responsibility away,” he said, telling the audience: “We owe it to our children and grandchildren not to throw away what once made the West great”.

He warned that “if we continue to forget that a free society is a moral achievement that depends on habits of responsibility and restraint, then what will come next – be it Russia, China, ISIS or Iran – will be neither liberal nor democratic, and it will certainly not be free.”

The ceremony ended on a joyous note, Lord Sacks was invited to take the microphone and join with the Shabbaton Choir and choir of Sacks Morasha Jewish Primary School in a rousing rendition of Oseh Shalom.

After Lord Sacks was announced as the winner earlier this year, Prince Charles hosted a private reception at Clarence House in his honour.