Archbishop asked to chair possible citizens’ forum

A cross-party group of senior MPs have formally asked the Archbishop of Canterbury to chair a possible citizens’ forum on Brexit.

Reports from The Times suggested MPs wanting to stop a no-deal Brexit were in talks with the Most Rev Justin Welby to chair a public conference to advise politicians on the way forward for Brexit, with meetings reportedly due to be held at Coventry Cathedral next month.

And now a group of MPs, including a Brexiteer, have gone public with the move and formally written to the archbishop asking him to conduct citizens’ assembly proceedings following a meeting yesterday of key Commons figures opposed to no-deal.

The politicians want to hold meetings, known as citizens’ assemblies or citizens’ forums, where people with a host of differing views on Britain’s divorce from Brussels and from across the spectrum of society could come together in a bid to find a solution to the current stalemate.

The letter to Archbishop Welby was signed by Labour MPs Hilary Benn and Yvette Cooper, Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb, the SNP’s Angus MacNeil, Conservative Party MP Dame Caroline Spelman, and independent member Frank Field. All but veteran MP Mr Field are pro-EU politicians.

The citizens’ forum model has been used in the UK previously to seek solutions for social care and was used in Ireland when preparing the wording of the referendum question last year on whether to legalise abortion.